The issue of the education of pupils speaking a different mother tongue in primary education is becoming increasingly relevant in today's Slovak school system. The educational environment includes physical, social and pedagogical interactions and plays a key role in the acquisition of the school language and communicative skills. This has a direct impact on their academic results and their adaptation in the culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. The research results point out the need for an inclusive approach, which should be presented through a supportive educational environment respecting pupils’ family background, belonging to ethnic and different national groups. This study presents the results of an analysis of teachers' views on the complexity of factors forming the educational environment. The methods for obtaining data included a questionnaire addressed to primary school teachers and structured interviews with them. The analysed responses and utterances uncovered the results pointing on that the significant majority of teachers strongly demand centralised methodical support from state authorities. The discussion confronts that linguistic diversity does not have to be an obstacle. On the contrary, it can be a benefit for all pupils in classrooms. This paper was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the Contract No. APVV-22-0450 and the project KEGA 008UMB-4/2024 Creation of Textbook and Methodological Material for Teaching Slovak Language for Children of Slovaks Living Abroad.

Keywords: Primary education, educational environment, methodological support, pupils speaking different mother tongue, teachers' views.