Early Bilingualism in a Multicultural Community

Due to the multicultural environment in Istria which also gave grounds to the need to protect and foster the rights of the Italian minority in this region, there are numerous educational institutions that offer a programme in Italian language for preschool and elementary school children. Our research has shown that those programmes are not attended only by children of the Italian minority but also by children of Croatian origin, who are not native speakers of Italian. The purpose of our research was to establish the reasons why parents choose an education in Italian for their children, and to find out if there is a correlation between the choice to continue the education in Italian language and the native language that the children speak. Our research has included preschool teachers and teachers in primary education that work in kindergarten and elementary schools in Italian language in Istria. The research has shown that according to the perceptions of preschool and primary school teachers, as well as taking into consideration the opinions of parents, it is possible to conclude that parents often enrol their children in preschools and elementary schools mostly because they want them to continue their education in the Italian language, because they want their children to learn how to better use the second language (SL), or to help them create their ethnical identity and to promote the conservation of Italian culture, traditions, customs and values. Data collected in this research will be used to analyze the influences of multicultural surroundings with regards to learning Italian as a SL by children, native speakers of Croatian, as well as to promote the development of intercultural interaction and respect for diversity between children.