Project from the Recovery Plan – Success of Our Faculty
In 2024, the Faculty of Central European Studies, along with the Faculty of Arts at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, successfully applied for a project titled Pilot Testing of Changes in the Preparation of Future Teachers of Slovak in Minority Schools. This project is part of the Recovery Plan of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic. Our winning project is called Preparation of Future Teachers of Slovak Language and Slovak Literature for Educational Practice in Schools with Hungarian as the Language of Instruction.
The main goal of the project is to innovate teacher education, with a particular focus on improving the methodological training of future educators in pre-elementary and elementary education, as well as Slovak language and Slovak literature teachers in schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction. The project leader is Prof. Ildikó Vančo, PhD., a researcher in bilingualism and a professor at the Institute of Hungarian Linguistics and Literary Studies. Our faculty has set out to implement this two-year project in two main phases.
In the first phase, research will be conducted in Hungarian-language kindergartens and primary schools. This will include observing lessons and Slovak language activities, discussions with teachers in focus groups, and a questionnaire survey aimed at gauging the attitudes of students in primary education. The data will be analysed according to the following criteria:
- Linguistics: Challenges in learning Slovak, with a special focus on the different language families of Hungarian and Slovak;
- Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics: Attitudes toward acquiring Slovak as a second (foreign) language, the influence of the broader and local environment, and the role of the child’s age in learning Slovak;
- Pedagogical-didactic analysis: Pedagogical and didactic aspects of teaching the state language in pre-primary and primary education.
The second phase will involve using the created database and analysis results to develop new courses and update existing ones aimed at teaching Slovak to students in pre-primary and primary education, and lower secondary education in Hungarian-medium schools. Printed and digital methodological support materials will be prepared for each course, which we believe will be useful not only for students but also for practicing teachers.
Throughout the project, we will closely collaborate with the Faculty of Arts at UKF, which is responsible for training future Slovak language and Slovak literature teachers for secondary education.
A newly formed research team made up of experts from our faculty is already working on the project and coordinating activities. Our students are also actively involved, sharing their experiences from teaching practice.
We launched the series of project events with a Kick-off Meeting on October 14, 2024, inviting both domestic and international experts. This meeting provided an opportunity to share research and practical experiences in teaching a second language (using foreign language methods) and to discuss the project’s objectives and goals.
Text: Mgr. Anna Oros Bugár (Institute of Hungarian Linguistics and Literary Science, FSŠ UKF in Nitra)
