PRESERVING LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY OF UKRAINIAN CHILDREN IN PORTUGAL

Abstract

The conference abstract deals with preserving language and cultural identity of Ukrainian children in Portugal. It is stated that to preserve their identity and language the Ukrainian migrant children have several options to be involved in, mostly on informal or non-formal levels. Together with family, church and self-study they can have profit from functioning public associations of migrants providing organized educational activity outside the established formal system. Furthermore, the migrant associations contribute to this process by helping Ukrainian children to overcome the feelings of rejection to tuition given outside the standard curriculum and school hours, increasing the motivation in studying native language and developing their knowledge by means of mother tongue, maintaining Ukrainian cultural identity and passing it on to future generations.