I had the honor to participate at the 2008 Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) Conference, held October 17-19 in Honolulu, Hawaii, http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/call.htm as a representative of the team of the School of Philology, University of Belgrade with the paper "From language barriers to social capital: Serbian as L2 for Roma children", authors: Julijana Vučo. Ph.D, Jelena Filipović, Ph.D and Ljiljana Đurić, M.A.

The participation was supported by the School of Philology of University of Belgrade and the Embassy of the USA in Belgrade.

The paper describes a model of systematic inclusion into the educational system of Serbia of Roma children returnees from the countries of European Union (emigrants who left Serbia and former Yugoslavia during the period of wars and social and political upheaval in this region: 1992 – 1999).

The model is aimed at developing a strategic curricular framework for learning Serbian as a L2 and as a language of schooling, which would adequately meet the needs of Roma returnees and internally displaced Roma children and help them overcome the language barrier they face when entering the compulsory school system in Serbia. It is based on a holistic approach to education of minorities and majorities, in which both sides are trained in the area of intercultural competence, with an overt rejection and sanctioning of any form of racism, discrimination and segregation.

The model offers two basic modules of language support: Serbian as a language of basic communication, and Serbian as a language of schooling. Furthermore, the model calls for the implementation of different types of language support activities:

1. Individual support (in reaching academic proficiency in Serbian as L2, up to B1 at least of CEF, with elements of Serbian as L1 found in a curriculum for a given grade).
2. Individual support (in ensuring access to Serbian as a language of schooling e.g., history, math, biology, arts, etc.; development of learning strategies, acquisition of specific terminologies, etc.,)
3. Group  and family support

Language support model for Serbian as L2 and Serbian as a language of schooling is carried out by specially trained grade school teachers and monitored and supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education and local Roma NGOs.