The language environment of preschool educational institutions as a means of developing bilingual culture in preschool-aged children

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical analysis of the speech environment of a preschool education institution as an effective means of forming the bilingual culture of preschool children in the context of contemporary educational transformations. The relevance of the study is substantiated by the growing role of multilingualism and the need for early formation of a linguistic personality. The objective of the article is to provide a theoretical justification and conceptualization of the speech environment of a preschool education institution as a pedagogical system for shaping the bilingual culture of preschool children. Methods. The study employs a set of theoretical methods, including the analysis of scientific and pedagogical sources and the generalization of modern approaches to organizing the speech environment in preschool education institutions. Particular attention is paid to the comparative analysis of the features of creating a bilingual speech environment and its influence on the formation of bilingual culture in preschool children. The results of the study clarify the essence of the speech environment as an integrated system of linguistic, communicative, and sociocultural influences that ensure children’s speech development. Its main components are identified, including the teacher’s speech, children’s speech activity, and the organization of the educational space. The approaches of Ukrainian scholars to the problem of preschool children’s speech development are analyzed. The importance of an emotionally supportive and communicatively rich environment for fostering children’s speech activity and communicative initiative is substantiated. A set of pedagogical conditions for the effective formation of bilingual culture is determined, including natural conformity, phased introduction of a second language, communicative orientation, individualization, and inclusiveness of the educational process. The expediency of organically integrating the second language into the child’s leading activities ‒ play, cognition, and everyday communication ‒ is proven.The conclusions emphasize that a purposefully organized speech environment ensures not only the development of speech skills but also the formation of the ability for intercultural communication and readiness to function in a multilingual sociocultural space.