Language learning or acquisition? Institutional early childhood education in migrant children’s linguistic development

Abstract

In this paper I present how school readiness appears in the Hungarian and international educational perspectives, which characteristics the different schoolsystems bear, what kind of programs are offered by the experts based on the results of their researches. After that I examine the special nature of the development path in the case of migrant children since the disadvantage in their language competence creates further tasks. Finally, I describe a modellike initiative, that gives us insight to the possibilities of a preaparatory program which encompasses and combines the characteristics of the Hungarian language and the criteria of the school readiness. The results of my study show that early childhood education plays an important role in the development process especially for migrant children.