From 1976 onwards ISSV had the responsibility of maintaining Slovenian language classes in the Victorian secondary state school system. This involved a range of interrelated activities which included maintenance of classes, curriculum and course development…
ISSV Arhivi 1976 – 2002 (in Slovenian)
The document is a description of the contents of ISSV Archives in 1976 – 2002. It was sent upon request to historian and researcher Aleksej Kalc for the information and records of the Scientific and Research Centre Koper of the Republic of Slovenia in December 2002.
Council of Slovenian Organisations of Victoria Inc.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Council of Slovenian Organisations of Victoria Australia Inc
P O Box 79 Rosanna, VIC 3084, Australia
Tel/Fax: +61 3 9459 2163
E-mail: mandel@techno.net.au
President: Stan Penca
Vice-President: Peter Mandelj OAM
Starting classes in Saturday school
In 1976 colleagues were contacted in Slovenia, Trieste, and the USA regarding suitable textbooks, which had to be approved by the school. It was fortunate that we had willing friends who made sure that books were sent in time for the beginning of the school year. In the USA we were assisted by Prof Edi Gobec (Slovenian Research Center of America) and in Trieste Prof. Martin Jevnikar collected a sufficient number of lower secondary and primary school readers to supply all three centres.
Teaching resources
Slovenian primary school readers were a rich source of materials, although by and large the lower grades were both too difficult and too simple. Useful were illustrations and certain literary forms such as humorous children”s poems and riddles. A wide variety of resources are used for the language and cultural studies of contemporary Slovenia and are referenced in the curriculum, the emphasis is on authentic language materials, Web resources, video, audio materials, media sources such as radio, journals, magazines, newspapers, television and the Internet.
Slovenian VCE students
Altogether 82 students completed the Victorian Certificate of Education from 1980 to 2005. They were dedicated young Slovenian Australians, who dedicated a great deal of effort to attend classes on Saturdays, often travelling some distance.
STAV 1976 – 1998
The main aim and purpose of STAV was to maintain the teaching of Slovenian language and culture in the secondary school system of Victoria.
Activities undertaken by STAV during the following years included regular meetings of teachers, seminars and workshops, development of syllabi and test papers, the acquisition and introduction of teaching resources. There were enrolment drives at the beginning of each school year, meetings with parents at various centres around Melbourne, publication of articles in Misli, radio talks and interviews.
Community language schools
The first attempt that led to a continuous teaching tradition took place in 1960 at the Slovenian Religious and Cultural Centre in Melbourne with the support and encouragement of Fr. Basil Valentin, the Franciscan priest, whose efforts for the Slovenian community became legendary.
Victorian School of Languages
The school proved a successful model, in time adopted by other Australian states in their efforts to provide for all the languages required by a growing, linguistically and ethnically diverse immigrant population. With its flexible structure it was able to provide for the language requirements of the Australian multicultural society. In Victoria it expanded progressively in response to Victoria”s language needs in the city and country areas.
Teaching Slovenian
The teachers were all experienced and developed their own strategies to deal with a range of problems. While they had extensive teaching materials, these needed to be adapted to the capabilities of the students. It was soon discovered that no suitable course book existed, so teachers made use of the available materials, selecting from the texts the most interesting, highlighting some aspect of Slovenian culture, and adapting it to the students standard. In this, they were remarkably successful.