Bulgarian as a second language

When in 2015 Alex started teaching 3rd and 4th grade students in the “Rayno Popovich” school in Karlovo, Bulgaria she noticed that a big part of her students are illiterate and do not speak Bulgarian. According to statistics cited by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria around 20% of all first graders every year find themselves in this situation of having a different mother tongue and not speaking Bulgarian. any of them do not receive the additional language support they need and they end up graduating grade after grade without understanding the language of their school. This means that not only are they lagging behind in language classes but also in all other subjects which are taught in Bulgarian. 

When faced with this situation back in 2015 Alex tried to find and use resources and materials from methodologies developed for other languages being taught as “second”, or in other words to non-native speakers. This proved to be a very difficult task as she did not have the needed support nor training on how to teach Bulgarian as a second language weather in addition to the mandatory classes or as part of them. She gathered resources and did all she could trying different teaching methods to advance her students’ literacy levels. This had some results, however, they were far from satisfactory for all of her students. 

This is part of the bigger problem which is that the current education system does not recognize students in such a situation as bilingual or multilingual. They are expected to come into this system already speaking Bulgarian language as natives. However, this is far from the reality for so many students entering classrooms each year. 

Thanks to your support, every day we are getting one step closer to achieving our goal of finalising the methodology and accompanying resources for teachers for students between 1st and 4th grade of primary school. We are currently developing the language support materials for students in 2nd and 3rd grade. Hopefully, as our project comes close to reaching its aim, hundreds of teachers in the country will be able to benefit from the methodology and additional resources and ultimately, they will be better prepared to address the needs of their multilingual students. This will in turn allow these children to feel better at school and in their wider communities and it will improve their communication skills and relationships with their peers. It will also have a positive effect on their academic performance and access to knowledge, ultimately presenting them with better development opportunities for their future. 

We hope you will continue to support us. 

Language is what will allow these children to feel at home and access to education is what will give them the wings to fly in life!

Sincerely yours,

Teach For Bulgaria Team

Links:

• More about the project