Understanding language awareness in the first language teaching in Slovenia as a “traditional monocultural“ society

In the didactics of the Slovenian language as the first language the term language awareness is related primarily to the identity function of standard language as the most important element of the national and cultural awareness, while the conception of language awareness, based on the functional linguistics, has been put forward only in the last decade. Therefore, the main issue is how to understand language and linguistic cultural awareness in a society which is traditionally considered “culturally monolithic”, and how they should be dealt with in the first language teaching. In attempt to find the answer, first main features of both the language and linguistic cultural awareness are presented: their levels, components and emphasized language functions. It is evident that a person’s linguistic activity and his/her linguistic identification are inseparable. Because of this, the development of language and cultural awareness in the context of two models of first language teaching is discussed later on. In the model aimed at the development of functional communicative competence they are developed optionally and unrelated to each other. Only the model which aims at critical communicative competence allows developing them closely related to each other and to critical thinking.