History of the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language
The Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language is an organisation dedicated to Slovene as a second and foreign language. It promotes Slovene language, literature, and culture, as well as Slovene studies, both in Slovenia and internationally. Some of its activities go back to the mid-1960s.
The idea of an organisation to comprehensively address Slovene as a nonnative language evolved over time, taking on various organisational forms and names (Centre for the Slovene Language, Centre for Slovene Language Studies, Centre for Slovene as a Second Language, Centre for Slovene Language, Centre for Slovene Language Teaching, and Slovene Studies Centre).
In 1993, the centre was officially established under the name Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language. Since 2015, it has been known as the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language (CSDTJ). Initially, it was part of an organisational unit within the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts. Following the department’s restructuring, it has operated under the Department of Slovene Studies since 2002. The centre has eight components or units.
SEMINAR OF SLOVENE LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE
The seminar is the centre’s oldest component and the oldest international professional Slovene studies event. It is intended for students of Slovene at universities outside Slovenia and the international Slovene and Slavic studies professional community (researchers, teachers, translators, etc.).
The first seminar, which offered participants Slovene language courses, additional lectures, and accompanying programmes, was held by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1965.
Since its inception, seminar lectures have been published in book form, and since 2004 they have been freely accessible online. Since 2006, video recordings of lectures have also been freely available on the Videolectures.net portal.
Since 2014, international conferences have been held at the seminar every five years as part of the centre’s Slovene at Foreign Universities unit. Since 2022, the Toporišič Awards have been presented at the seminar’s opening ceremonies. A documentary film about the seminar was made in 2014, and retrospective exhibitions on the history of the seminar and the development of other activities at the centre were held to mark the seminar’s fortieth and sixtieth anniversaries.
SLOVENE AT FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES
This unit supports and coordinates Slovene language courses and academic programmes at more than sixty universities worldwide, and it includes over thirty-five of the centre’s own teachers and over eighty affiliated teachers abroad. In collaboration with universities and teachers, it ensures the quality of Slovene studies around the world, encourages Slovene studies research, strengthens academic cooperation and exchanges, and represents Slovene language, literature, and culture at universities and beyond.
Its beginnings go back to the 1960s, when, as part of the University of Ljubljana’s International Relations Committee, a committee was established to oversee Slovene language courses at universities outside Slovenia, with the first four Slovene language teachers sent abroad. In the 1972/1973 academic year, the Committee for Promoting Slovene at Non-Slovene Universities was established at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts. In 1992, the activity was renamed Slovene at Foreign Universities. It was financially supported by the Republic of Slovenia, and since then it has been organisationally and substantively developed under the aegis of the centre.
This is the main international Slovene studies conference.
In 1976, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures held an international symposium dedicated to Ivan Cankar as part of the Seminar of Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture. In 1979, the symposium was first held under the name Obdobja (Epochs), and it initially focused on specific periods in the development of Slovene language, literature, and culture. In 1996, it became an independent component of the centre, annually exploring issues in linguistics and literature.
SLOVENE LANGUAGE COURSES FOR ADULTS
This component offers various Slovene language courses for adults at all levels, from absolute beginners to those with advanced proficiency. The number of participants has been growing every year. The Slovene Language Summer School has been held for over forty years.
The activity started in 1982, when the Slovene Emigrant Association held the first Slovene Language Summer School. It was modelled after the Seminar of Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture, and it aimed at improving Slovene for young descendants of Slovene emigrants and expatriates. Since then, the Slovene Language Summer School for Adults has been offered regularly by the centre, with over eighty participants a year.
In the 1988/1989 academic year, the Year-Round Slovene Language School was held for the first time. This extended Slovene language course, which allows nonnative speakers to learn Slovene every day for the entire academic year, has been offered by the centre since 1990 and is still available today. Since 2009, it has been held in the form of the Autumn and Spring Schools.
The Examination Centre develops and administers exams in Slovene as a second and foreign language for adults and, based on these exams, issues officially recognised Slovene language-proficiency certificates.
The first exams for official purposes were held in 1991 and 1992, and the Examination Centre was established in 1994, when the Slovene Government appointed the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language as the expert committee for developing standards and verifying and certifying proficiency in Slovene as a second and foreign language. In 2000, the officially recognised programme Slovene for Foreigners was adopted, specifying how to teach and assess Slovene at various levels. This programme was used for exams until 2015, when a new programme, Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language, aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), was introduced. At that time, new exam formats were developed and aligned with the CEFR.
As a representative of the University of Ljubljana, the Examination Centre joined the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) in 2000 and became a full member of the association in 2004. In 2017, its exams were awarded the ALTE Q-Mark, indicating that they are based on professional considerations and meet appropriate criteria and standards. Following another successful review in 2023, the validity of this quality indicator was extended for another five years.
SLOVENE FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
This unit focuses on Slovene language courses for children and adolescents, the development of teaching materials, teacher training, research, and advisory work, thus connecting the University of Ljubljana with primary and secondary education. It conducts pioneering work in teaching Slovene to immigrant students. It has been an independent component of the centre since 2013.
Its beginnings go back to 1996, when the Slovene Ministry of Education established a position for a language teacher at the centre, responsible for training teachers in Slovene and bilingual schools in ethnic Slovene cross-border regions and teachers offering remedial Slovene language and culture instruction abroad. This activity has been carried out by the centre ever since. Over time, courses for children and adolescents began to be developed: in 2006 the first Youth Summer School was held, followed by the first intensive Slovene language week for secondary school students from ethnic Slovene cross-border regions in 2008, the first intensive course for immigrant children and parents in 2009, and the first Children’s Slovene Language Summer School in 2013. In 2019, at the initiative of the University of Ljubljana, the first course for secondary school students that wish to study in Slovenia was offered.
Since 2007, this unit has been involved in preparing various strategies, curricula, and plans for working with immigrant children and their language education, as well as in several international and Slovene projects. Various teaching materials for children and adolescents have been developed as part of it.
This component develops modern teaching materials for teaching Slovene as a second and foreign language, which are among the most widely used across the globe.
The first textbook for learning Slovene as a foreign language was published in 1978 as part of the Seminar of Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture. In the 1990s, the publishing activity began to develop independently. To date, more than thirty textbooks and workbooks have been published, aimed at various users from beginners to advanced levels of Slovene proficiency. Since the adoption of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), all textbooks have been aligned with it. Other educational materials have also been published, such as board games, grammar tables, collections of exercises, and, since 2021, a series of graded readers. In addition, conference proceedings are produced as part of the centre’s publishing activity.
This component offers various training opportunities, equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills to teach Slovene as a nonnative language as effectively as possible.
Training as an independent component of the centre was established in 2005, although prior to that teachers of Slovene as a second and foreign language improved their skills at shorter workshops or seminars.
As part of its training activities, the centre offers extended training in which teachers are trained to teach Slovene as a second and foreign language. In addition, it offers regular seminars to ensure the professional development of its staff and other interested parties. Seminars for primary and secondary school teachers are available in line with the Catalogue of Further Education and Training Programmes (KATIS), and shorter training programmes are offered for volunteers assisting in Slovene language learning. As part of its training activities, the centre also collaborates with institutions outside Slovenia, preparing methodological and teaching seminars for teachers from the diaspora and ethnic Slovene cross-border regions.
Sources:
The Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language (eds. M. Bešter, E. Kržišnik). Ljubljana: Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language, Department of Slavic Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, 1999.
Slavnostni zbornik ob 100-letnici Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (ed. G. Pompe). Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2019.
Archive of the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language