Social responsibility (SR) is supposed to become a new way out from the
current socio-economic crisis. Children are the future and they can learn SR indirectly.
Thus, this chapter investigates multilingualism and inter-culturalism among pre-school
children, aged 5 - 6, in Slovenia. The central part focuses on the foreign language
learning and intercultural education in the Slovenian pre-school and introduces
Comenius Assistantship in Slovenian kindergartens.
The data was collected from three groups of children: the first group learns a foreign
language and has received contact with Comenius assistants within the network innovative
project (NIP), the second group learns a foreign language within the NIP, and the third
learned no foreign language and has had no contact with Comenius assistants within preschool
activities yet. The research shows the existence of the positive effects of learning a
foreign language in pre-school. Children who learn a foreign language within the network
innovative project show more multilingual and intercultural awareness, knowledge, and
experiences, and more willingness to socialize with a child who comes from another
country. The results also show that children’s multilingual and intercultural awareness and
perceptions of other nations are positively influenced by teachers (like Comenius
assistants). However, some pre-school children do not always identify and perceive outgroup
children with a positive attitude and hold stereotypes towards them.
Keywords: Attitude, case, children, commenius assistants, experiences, interculturalism,
intercultural awareness, kindergarten, knowledge, language,
multilingualism, network innovative project (NIP), out-group children, perception
of other nations, pre-school, Slovenia, social responsibility, stereotypes, systemic
behaviour, teacher.
