The ultimate beneficiaries of this project were primary school children between 4-8 years with migrant backgrounds who speak a different language at home than the school language.

AVIOR bilingual teaching materials were translated into more than 15 different language combinations (incl Croatian-Boyash; Dutch-Polish; Italian-Arabic; Creek-Turkish, German-Albanian etc). Considering the needs of Estonia, the creation of Russian-Estonian bilingual teaching materials for children aged 4-8 was the most necessary.

AVIOR bilingual teaching materials were piloted at schools and kindergartens. The implementation analysis indicated that in addition to improving the language of instruction, teaching materials that use both the child’s mother tongue and the language of instruction also help to develop the child’s mother tongue and literacy. Teachers from different countries pointed out in their feedback, that the use of mother tongue in teaching increased children’s confidence and was emotionally important to them. Bilingual teaching materials allowed children to discuss the importance of different languages and increased their tolerance for speakers of another language.

It was easy for the teachers to integrate the AVIOR teaching materials into the classroom as they were age appropriate and tasks were easily understandable. The use of bilingual teaching materials increased the involvement of parents in their children’s education and assured them that teachers value the child’s mother tongue and culture.

See also

AVIOR – Sirius network http://www.sirius-migrationeducation.org/news/avior