Learning the host country’s language is one of the most critical aspects of successful social and economic integration. Refugees must communicate effectively with their new communities, access services and participate fully in society. Language barriers can create significant challenges for refugees, including difficulties accessing healthcare, education and employment.
Learning the Bulgarian language also helps refugees to develop social ties, find employment or further their education. The Bulgarian language is a critical element of the culture, and learning it will enable refugees to understand the country’s customs and traditions better. The Bulgarian language can help break down barriers between refugees and Bulgarian citizens and foster greater understanding and empathy.
Language skills are often an essential requirement for many jobs, and learning the host country’s language can help refugees access job opportunities and build their careers. Knowledge of the Bulgarian language can be vital for refugees with limited work experience or facing other employment barriers.
Learning the language can help refugees feel more confident and self-sufficient in their new country. Learning Bulgarian by refugees is a challenge but also an opportunity through which refugees can be more connected to their new community and more optimistic about their prospects.
Training of trainers in Bulgarian as a foreign language
Language learning is a critical aspect of refugee integration, and developing the capacity to teach Bulgarian has a vital role to play. Providing language courses to refugees requires methodological support for teachers of Bulgarian as a foreign language.
Following identifying this need, in March, the Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants held the first regional pilot training for Bulgarian language trainers of adult refugees, which looked at the latest trends and innovations in teaching and their adaptation to the exclusive methodology each teacher uses.
The leading specialists in teaching Bulgarian to refugees, Radost Sabeva, Radoslava Zagorova and Vladislav Damyanov, have developed the training programme. The programme includes the specifics of teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language, the particulars of teaching refugees, the impact on the learning process of working in groups, learning styles, the role of the communicative approach in teaching, the steps and elements of the lesson, language activities and games in teaching. The programme also includes instruction through suggestopedia and desuggestopedic education – science, methodology, practical tips, and a demonstration of a suggestopedic lesson in Bulgarian for people worldwide.
The next regional training for trainers of Bulgarian as a foreign language to refugees will take place in April. After the training, the materials for teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language to refugees will be available on the BCRM website with free access as a resource in teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language to refugees.
If you are a trainer of the Bulgarian language to adult refugees and would like to participate in a training for trainers, you can write to bgrc@bulrefcouncil.org
Useful resources:
•Учебно помагало по български език за бежанци
•Учебно помагало по български език като чужд за начален етап част 1
•Учебно помагало по български език като чужд за начален етап част 2
