First time with representation from Slovak Hungarians/Slovakia – successful introduction at the 12th Carpathian Basin Mother Tongue Teaching Competition
The Institute of Hungarian Language and Literary Science of the Faculty of Central European Studies of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra participated for the first time in the prestigious 12th Carpathian Basin Mother Tongue Teaching Competition, which was held in Eger between 19–21 March 2025, organized by the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University. For the first time in the history of the competition, foreign Hungarian institutions were also able to nominate their education students, so in addition to the Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education in Berehove, the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra also joined the prestigious event.
Virág Mercédesz Fóthi, a fifth-year student of teaching Hungarian language and literature and music has represented our faculty and the Hungarian teacher training in Slovakia. Her preparations for the competition were assisted by Anikó N. Tóth.
The three-day event began with professional presentations and an inspiring communication workshop, during which participants were enriched with new methodological ideas and pedagogical approaches. Particularly noteworthy was the presentation by Anita Csató (Eszterházy Károly Catholic University) on the impact of creative writing exercises on text comprehension and creation skills, as well as the presentation by Zsuzsa Gonda (Eötvös Lóránd University) on the role of artificial intelligence in mother tongue education. The communication workshop held by Anett Farkas (Eszterházy Károly Catholic University) provided an excellent opportunity for participants to acquire a variety of methodological tools.
On the second and third days of the competition, the demonstration classes took place at the practice school of the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University. The competitors held a pre-planned, 45-minute Hungarian language lesson for classes of 16 pupils in grades 9–11. The central theme of this year’s competition was “The role and effect of enumeration, degrees and parallelism in different text types.” Our student’s lesson received an extremely positive response. During her lesson, she introduced the students to the world of native language formations with poems set to music, paired and cooperative group work, and the analysis of literary, journalistic, and everyday texts. Her innovative and experiential approach was appreciated by the jury, the students and teachers as well.
The XII. Carpathian Basin Mother Tongue Teaching Competition not only provided an opportunity for the future teachers to demonstrate their professional preparedness, but also served as an important forum for the exchange of methodological experiences, learning about new pedagogical trends, and building professional relationships. This was the first, but hopefully not the last, participation in this prestigious competition for the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. The successful presentation confirmed that Hungarian teacher training in Slovakia is worthy of recognition in the professional environment of the Carpathian Basin and makes a valuable contribution to the development of Hungarian language and literature education.že príprava učiteľov maďarčiny na Slovensku má svoje opodstatnenie v odbornom prostredí Karpatskej kotliny a je cenným prínosom pre rozvoj maďarského jazykového a literárneho vzdelávania.
Photo: Adri Nagy
