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• TEACHING GERMAN TO STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS HUNGARIAN AND INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEW

  55-67

  Magdolna Nemes

  Helga Rózsa

  Views:

  274

  Nowadays teaching children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is at the centre of attention. However, the field is really new in language pedagogy and, due to the students’ different abilities, a common methodology has yet to be developed. As a result, teachers’ creativity plays an even more important role, since they rely heavily on their own teaching experience. We will dive deeper into this topic in our two papers built upon each other, both dealing with the issues of teaching a second language to school-aged children with SEN. This present paper is about teaching German students with SEN at a Hungarian and an international level. Our research involves an international overview of several European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Romania, Poland, Russia, Estonia, and Italy). We contacted specific institutions in those countries and asked for their experience in teaching a second language to children with SEN. It also includes the language learning characteristics of children with SEN as well as the Hungarian rules governing their language teaching.

• HISTORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AT AN EARLY AGE ON NYÍREGYHÁZA

  7-18

  Magdolna Nemes

  Anikó Nagy

  Views:

  151

  In our paper, we deal with the significance of learning languages at an early age. While going through the literature of the topic, we draw attention to the importance of age in learning a language, as well as the basic differences between language learning and language acquisition. In the following, we present the options outside the family (such as language schools and family creche 'családi bölcsőde') for learning a language at an early age in Nyíregyháza in 2017. In our research, we also wanted to find out what differences can be seen in terms of the methodology of early foreign language activities in kindergartens/preschools between the activities held during the change of the political regime in Hungary (1989/1990) and today. We chose the interview as a research method because in this way we can get a picture of the foreign language activities in kindergartens/preschools and their first steps in the 1990s when they were first available to children. We made eight interviews in spring 2017, asking kindergarten pedagogues/early childhood educators and language teachers as well as who had held English activities in kindergartens/preschools. Based on the information we received from the informants, we can say that early English activities were available in 23 kindergartens/preschools out of the 34 kindergartens/preschools (68%) operating in Nyíregyháza, Hungary in 2017. In some kindergartens/preschools children can also take part in early French and German activities. We have also realized that the number of those kindergartens/preschools which organize playful foreign language activities on a weekly basis has been increasing since the 1990s. From the recollections of the informants, it has also been revealed to us that during the change of the political system providing personal criteria (that is finding qualified teachers) was the most difficult task. Nowadays, several kindergartens/preschools employ kindergarten pedagogues who are able to take part in the language development of children in a foreign language as they are competent users of it. Playfulness, using audiovisual devices, and a lot of props have been highly important since the very beginning in the kindergartens, and pedagogues have also been doing their best to use and try different methods in order to develop the foreign language competence of children aged 4-7. 

• WINDMILL FIGHT? THE SITUATION OF BESD STUDENTS AND THEIR PARENTS AND TEACHERS IN THE VIEW OF INTERVIEWS WITH DEVELOPMENT TEACHERS

  113-124

  Regina Sávai-Átyin

  Views:

  299

  Nowadays, there is a strong focus on students with learning and behavioural difficulties, both internationally and nationally. Their growing number year by year is challenging teachers to develop their skills and to learn new methods to alleviate or eliminate the problems these students are struggling with. Numerous studies have focused on the underlying causes of the achievement of the average student, while relatively little research has examined the individuals and factors that influence the achievement of students with BESD. This study analyses one interview with a focus group and five semi-structured interviews with teachers of development. The current exploratory interview study focuses on the role that developmental teachers and teachers play in the educational lives of students with these difficulties, and whether the parents of these students are more involved in their school education than parents of average students.