| Popis: |
Croatia is a small European country with a language not spoken widely, and a little experience in integration and schooling of foreign-speaking children. However, in the last couple of years Croatian schools faced the challenge of school integration of refugee pupils, arriving predominantly from Arabic-speaking countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the modes of intergroup communication and the role of language in school integration of refugee children in Croatia. To explore this issue, we conducted a qualitative study in six elementary schools, considering the perspectives of refugee children (N=15), their parents (N=5), school staff (N=54) and host-society peers (N=50). Participants from focus group discussions and interviews highlighted the key role of language in refugee integration, since intergroup communication takes a central place in this process. Language was considered to be a main barrier in various aspects of school integration, from school enrollment procedures, to teaching and learning in class, engaging in social interactions with host-community peers, and school-parent cooperation. Participants also described different ways in which they communicated with each other. Most of the time direct communication between members of different groups is done in the host- society language, followed by English and non- verbal communication. But, when direct ways of communicating were not possible, participants also utilized different types of mediated communication: help of Arabic-speaking interpreters, refugee children fluent in the host- language or other host-community members, as well as the use of modern technologies. |
