The history of the Centre for Slovene as a Second/ Foreign Language in seven steps
1. The Centre has its origins in 1965, when the then Department of Slavic Languages and Literature organised the first Seminar of Slovene Language, Literature and Culture (SSLLC), at which there were a few dozen enthusiastic foreign Slavists. By the eighth such seminar in 1972, this had risen to 120, a number which has been roughly maintained to this day. The Centre was still without a name back then, but the idea first appeared of an institution that would carry Slovene language, literature and culture into the international sphere.
2. At roughly the same time, within the framework of the Committee for International Relations at Edvard Kardelj University, later renamed as the University of Ljubljana, a special body was set up to monitor the work of Slovene language lecturers at foreign universities. In 1972/73 this responsibility was transferred to the Committee for Promoting Slovene at Non-Slovene Universities, at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts. The complicated but significant name was changed in 1992 to Slovene at Foreign Universities and it began to function under the aegis of the Centre. Slovene is currently being taught through 57 lectureships around the world, with financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology.
3. In 1979, the Department of Slovene Language and Literature organised the first Obdobja Symposium, initially in conjunction with the SSLLC, the aim of which was to explore different periods in the development of Slovene language, literature and culture. In the 1990s, the symposium became an independent entity and began to focus more on key questions. The ideas shaping and arising at each symposium are debated both at symposium sessions and in the printed proceedings.
4. In the same period there arose the need for a new school to teach Slovene to the children and grandchildren of immigrants to Slovenia. The first was organised upon the initiative of the Slovene Emigrant Association at the classical secondary school in Kranj, but taking its approach and teachers from the SSLLC. For this reason, in 1983, the year after the first Slovene Language Summer School, the idea began to take shape of a Slovene language centre, which could organise all such events and activities. The Summer School did not relocate to the Faculty of Arts until 1988, at a time when intensive negotiations were taking place for the transfer of intensive, year-round Slovene courses from the then Workers' University to the Centre for Slovene, which finally happened in 1990. The range of courses offered by the Centre continued to expand, in relation to time of year (winter, autumn and summer schools), specialisation (courses for translators, for students, exam preparation) and the age range – since 2006 there has been a special course available for children.
5. The Centre has thus been on the scene since the mid-1960s, its concept gradually taking shape in the form of different organisational structures and under different names (Centre for Slovene Language, Centre for Slovene as a Second Language, Centre for Slovene, Centre for the Teaching of Slovene, Slovene Studies Centre). In 1991 it was given the official name Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language, while its activities were determined by special guidelines and organisationally it was linked more closely with the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; when, in 2002, this department split into the Department of Slavic Languages and the Department of Slovene Studies, the Centre became linked to the latter.
6. In 1992, soon after Slovene independence (and that of the Centre itself), the Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language began to carry out the first examinations in Slovene for official needs – initially for customs officials on the Slovene border. On 31st July 1994 a government resolution recognised the Centre as an official examination body for Slovene language, which is how the Examination Centre came about.
7. All the above-mentioned activities and programmes require the appropriate infrastructure to be in place. This is guaranteed by the Centre's educational and publishing activities (which have been present from the very beginning in all but name) and participation in many national and international projects. In the new millennium, the Centre has also become a research centre for Slovene as a second and foreign language.
The future:
The vision of Emeritus Professor Dr Breda Pogorelec, the driving force behind the bringing together under one roof of all international Slovene Studies activities, is thus being realised: the influence of the Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language reaches ever further.
Sources:
The Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language (ed. M. Bešter, E. Kržišnik). Ljubljana: Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language, Department of Slavic Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, 1999.
Archive of the Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language
