Search

Search Results

• Foreign language competencies and the job market: Employers' expectations and the (self-)assessment of language teaching and learning by students of the College of Szolnok

  51-60

  Adrienn Makainé Patay

  Stefan Mommertz

  Views:

  133

  Two of the most important objectives of the project "Improving foreign language training programmes at the College of Szolnok" are increasing the chances of newly graduated students on the job market through improved language teaching methods and achieving a better fulfilment of human resources needs of the multicultural job market brought about by national and international companies operating in the region. This study contrasts the results of research
  carried out among employers with regards to their foreign language expectations for graduates with surveys done among students of the College of Szolnok. In these surveys students evaluated their own foreign language knowledge as well as the standard of language teaching at the college and gave an insight into their experiences as far as language learning and their use of foreign languages are concerned.

• The interconnection of gender and communication: communication in the workplace The differences, in other words who is better?

  7-12

  Ágnes Huszár

  Views:

  195

  The paper explores the differences between the way women and men communicate. The author states that the communication skills of the two genders are different: women are better than men at performing various verbal tasks. The article reveals the possible causes of this difference in skills. Gender can define the communication style. We can also observe a difference in speech. There is an ever increasing demand for workers with excellent communication skills in the world of work. Such workplaces prefer to employ women rather than men. The better skills of women manifest themselves not only in mother tongue skills, but also in the acquisition of foreign languages. The author advises boys to communicate more emphatically and girls to be more assertive. 

• Discussion forum (course) – a practical approach to communicative competence development

  142-147

  Tatiana Hrivíková

  Views:

  83

  The paper describes and discusses the observations and findings of three years of teaching a unique English language course – “Discussion Forum” within the study programme Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication at the Faculty of Applied Languages, at the University of Economics in Bratislava. It presents the original format as it was introduced in 2010 when the study programme was accredited and its development and alterations based on the collected experience and evidence of both students and teacher. Three debate formats, speech duel, round table and team debate, are described and their shortcomings and merits are evaluated. Finally, the findings and conclusions arrived at since the first implementation, are discussed.

• Capacity to handle complexity – The importance of contextual awareness in healthcare communication in English as a lingua franca

  131-141

  Alexandra Vivien Bakó

  Views:

  128

  Hungarian healthcare providers – as most of their colleagues around the world – engage in interaction with foreign patients, whom they do not share a mother tongue with, in English as a lingua franca (ELF) most of the time. These communicative situations pose great challenges to healthcare providers, as they have to be capable of adjusting their language use to their patients’ cognitive, linguistic and communicative-pragmatic schemata which often differ from their own. In order to develop such a capacity, ESP classes must focus on improving health science students’ awareness in exploring various ELF contexts which form ground for making informed decisions on the use of terminology. The present research aims at showing the complex dynamic nature of these ELF contexts based on empirical data collected via interviews with Hungarian healthcare providers who have extended experience in working with patients in international environments. The results can inform the everyday practice of ESP teachers in the field of the health sciences.

• The improvement of speaking skills at pilot courses at the College of Szolnok in the light of the findings of our labour market survey

  68-75

  Beáta Busi

  Edit Kiscsatári

  Views:

  88

  The research conducted by the College of Szolnok in 2013 on the language requirements of the labour market revealed that what employers mostly find lacking in careerstarters is the confident and proficient use of foreign languages. On the basis of the research findings the subjects taught at the College have been developed in a practiceoriented direction. In our lecture we elaborate on the possibilities of improving the communicative competence at our pilot courses. We give a survey of the phases of the improvement of speaking skills, the most important condition of the communication process. We present the task types characterising the various phases of the development process, the strategies of teaching vocabulary using some German examples taken from some textbook series (Alltag, Beruf & Co.) used at the pilot courses.