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TEFL Bamako

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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:

T.T. - Hungary said:
The Hungarian language is not Indo-European, it is a Uralic language. Since a language is the means of expression and understanding, talking and understanding Indo-European languages (including english), and their nations’ ways of thinking is difficult for learners in Hungary. The “learners of Hungary” is intentionally written in the title. One should distinguish between Hungarians living in Hungary (hereinafter referred to as “Hungarians”) and Hungarian minorities in the surrounding countries. The Hungarian minorities in Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Austria and Slovakia study these countries’ official Indo-European languages, so they pass the barriers of the Hungarian language. The Hungarian language is agglutinative while Indo-European languages (including english) are inflected languages. For instance, since Hungarian does not have preposition but it has postposition, it is difficult to understand languages (including english) using prepositions. Here I am writing about two linguistic issues difficult for Hungarian students. The phonetic differences are one of the basic difficulties. In Hungarian the vowels are open and longer than in english. Also the sound value is different. For instance while Hungarian alphabet has “a” [?:] (see: alma=apple) and “á” [a:] (see: áll=stand), english has a single vowel “a” [?], like the indefinite pronoun. Most of english speaking Hungarians instead of [?] pronounce [?]. The Hungarians’ speech basis is totally different from the english one. Moreover, there are vowels in Hungarian (ö [ø], ? [ø:] ó [o:], ü [y], ? [y:] ) that have not been pronounced in Indo-European languages. For instance, Hungarians pronounce the Hungarian vowels mentioned in the brackets instead of reduced vowels. The word “writer” sounds “rájter” in Hungarian instead of ['ra?t?]. It is notable that Hungarians cannot pronounce the bilabial consonant “w”, they say dentilabial “v” instead of english “w” [d?blju:]. As a consequence of phonetic differences it is very difficult for Hungarians to study reading and writing in english. Moreover, there are words e.g. “success” that should be taught specially. The double “c” in like it appears in english pronunciation is unknown in Hungarian. The [s?k'ses] sounds in Hungarian “szákszesz”. (The Hungarian “sz” is a double letter sounds like [s:].) At the beginning of teaching Hungarian students, teacher shall emphasize the sound value of english letters, and teach english pronunciation through printed texts and audio records. Additional problem is the verb tenses. There are three tenses in Hungarian only: past, present, future. Because of the barriers of Hungarian language, Hungarian students want to translate everything into Hungarian. So, while the difference of sentence like “Father comes home at 7.” and “Father is coming home at 7.” can be translated into Russian expressing the same differences: “???? ???????? ????? ? 7 ?????.”and “???? ?????? ????? ? 7 ?????.” Hungarian language has a simple present translation: “Apa 7-kor jön haza.” The present perfect has been translated into Hungarian in past, and the present perfect continuous is translated in present. The problem is the same with english past and future tenses. Hungarian does not make difference. As a consequence, Hungarian students need quite good explanation and visual demonstration to understand the english verb tenses. Another group of reasons for low rate of Hungarians’ english studies is related to history and mentality. Until the 18th century the “official” language was Latin. From the 18th century through 19th and beginning of 20th because of the Austrian domination , the German language was official. Hungarian language started to spread after the revolution of 1848/49, and especially after the formation of Austro-Hungary in 1867. Since then it was fashionable not to speak foreign languages. By the way, for economic reasons Hungarians studied German, and because of the traditions studied Latin too. After the World War I english studies developed, but did not replace German. After the World War II the Russian was compulsory language in every level of education until 1989. Students hated this subject and refused Russian studies. However, neither students/pupils, nor adults studied additional language despite the possibilities after the revolution of 1956. In 2007, that is 18 years after the foundation of new, third Hungarian Republic 74.8% of Hungarians did not speak any foreign language. This rate has not been changed even today. One of the reasons for unknowing foreign languages, including english is the teaching method. The Hungarian education and teaching method is still rooted in the traditions of Prussian method. The lessons are teacher oriented, and there is not room for students’ free or controlled discussion or game in foreign language, including english. This reason is the same in elementary, secondary and higher education. The private schools introduce today new student oriented method. My experience is that the adult students demand the old method and they are afraid of free speech and behavior even today. They require the teacher’s strong leadership. The younger generation needs “democratic” lessons, where they are partners of the teacher in studies. This generation will be adult within 10-25 years. This generation also requires games in learning, and new methods what have been taught in the tefl course. Regarding development of english studies in Hungary, 27% of the remaining 25% of the Hungarian population speaking or studying foreign language learns english and 27% studies German. According to statistical data, 16% of the entire Hungarian population speaks english on pre-intermediate and intermediate level.


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