Teachers’ Linguistic Environment as a Determinant of Adaptive Instruction in Slovak as a Second Language Education

This study conceptualizes the teaching of Slovak as a second language in primary schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction in Slovakia as an adaptive system of didactic decision-making shaped by teachers’ language environments and professional practices in a minority educational context. The study examines how teachers’ use of Slovak in and outside school, classroom language behaviour, perceived learner language difficulties, and institutional factors influence the application of teaching approaches, drawing on a nationally representative sample of primary school teachers (N=257). Using principal component analysis, eight dimensions of teaching approaches were identified, reflecting distinct profiles of adaptive instruction. Subsequent analyses indicate that teachers’ methodological decisions are systematically associated with their extracurricular contact with Slovak, functional language use in the classroom, perceived learner difficulties, and school-related contextual variables, rather than being determined solely by fixed methodological orientations. The findings highlight the dynamic and context-sensitive nature of Slovak L2 instruction in minority education and underscore the central role of teachers’ language practices beyond institutional settings. The study proposes an empirically grounded model of adaptive didactic decision-making that contributes to research on state language teaching in minority contexts and offers implications for the pedagogical regulation of bilingual primary education.