Mazākumtautību pirmsskolēnu latviešu valodas prasme

The research group has been following children’s progress in learning the Latvian language for several years. The continuation of such research is facilitated by the idea of a complete transition to the Latvian as the everyday language in all groups of pre-schoolers and, starting with Form 1, also in school studies from 1 September 2023. Accordingly, the proposals for amendments to the Education Law and the General Education Law were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on 7 June 2022. They stipulate that teaching in the state language in every education programme, including special education programmes, is to be introduced gradually: on 1 September 2023, in the implementation of the pre-school education programme and the general basic education programme in Forms 1, 4 and 7. Statistics show a decrease in the number of national minority groups and an increase in the number of Latvian language groups, but in the 2021/2022 school year there were still 769 pre-school groups in Latvia with Russian as the language of study. In the project No. VPP-LETONIKA-2022/1-0001 “Use and Development of Modern Latvian Language” of the State Research Programme “Letonika – Fostering a Latvian and European Society”, researchers follow the current legislative developments and continue the analysis of Latvian language skills of the children of national minorities using the children’s speech recordings and pre-school teachers’ surveys. The aim of the article is to analyse the readiness of pre-school minorities children to learn in the 1st grade in the Latvian language in accordance with the educational policy documents. According to the analysis of 397 children’s speech recordings and an express survey of pre-school teachers on Latvian language skills of 181 national minority children who graduated from 5 different pre-schools in the summer of 2022, it can be concluded that the Latvian language skills of several children who attended groups with Russian language as everyday language were insufficient. The researchers have recommended ensuring the learning of the Latvian language in pre-school educational institutions, switching the language of studies and everyday conversation to solely Latvian. The research group appreciates the planned transition to the Latvian language in pre-school from September 1, 2023, so that children can successfully continue their studies in the 1st grade in Latvian, as well as the planned support for acquiring language skills, but will continue to follow these processes and analyse minority children’s Latvian language skills.