3–4. 2008.

Abstracts in English

Studies

Neuberger, Tilda

Vocabulary development in kindergarten

 

 

The social environment and the accessible language pattern are crucial factors in first language acquisition. The language pattern has a strong influence on the vocabulary of children, which may be the source of language advantage or disadvantage in the future. This study investigates the vocabulary of children of different age groups and from different background. It aims to explore how vocabulary develops at this age, and how the different family environment affects the mental lexicon of children. For pedagogical reasons it is important to examine the vocabulary of the children before entering school. Children with linguistic drawback may face a series of failures at school. Identifying the problems contributes to their future development. From a psycholinguistic point of view, this research contributes to the closer exploration of the children’s mental lexicon. From a sociolinguistic perspective, it points to the relation between language use and language environment.

 

 

 

Laczkó, Mária

How students and teachers describe the speech of teenagers


 

The formal features of of teenagers’ speech (including the speed of speech, articulation difficulties, sound production disorders and accentuation problems) is often criticized. This is  represented by the unanimous opinion of both teachers and parents, and also in the results of research on first language acquisition.

The present study examines how students of different age groups and teachers describe the speech of teenagers at the age of 15-18, based on the criteria mentioned above. The main focus of the investigation is to what extent teenagers are aware of the negative phenomena found in former linguistic and pedagogical research. In addition, it is examined what formal features of their speech are the most problematic for both students and researchers of first language acquisition and pedagogy.

 

 

 

Herbszt, Mária

Questions about the Gricean conversational maxims in classroom interaction



The study considers classroom interaction as a special type of conversation for two reasons. Firstly, it bears the two major properties of conversation (viz., it is dialogic and interactive), secondly, it is built up on the universal principles of the organization of conversation. The paper investigates the Gricean maxims in the utterances of both teachers and students. Several questions arising from the analyses urge future investigations. It is expected that the analysis of the conversational maxims by pure linguistic means is not sufficient in classroom interaction. In the future, complex linguistic-didactic-pragmatic analysis is needed in order to learn and understand classroom interaction more deeply.

 

 

 

Bakonyiné Kovács, Bea

Punctuation at school


 

The various and expressive use of punctuation marks is an important device for us to express subtle sensible and emotional differences. Moreover, they play a crucial role in disambiguation. The study investigates our awareness of punctuation, and whether our consciousness in written communication improves with the appropriate use of punctuation marks. The paper reports the results of a survey carried out among students in their fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth grade in a school in Baja, Hungary. It has been found that the majority of the students do not ascribe communicative value to the grammatical use of punctuation marks. Certain punctuation marks (e.g., dash, colon and semicolon) are fading away from the writing of the students, whereas others (e.g., comma, full stop, question mark and exclamation mark) are less in danger. The methodology of teaching punctuation is discussed, too.

 

 

 

Boronkai, Dóra
Conversation analysis and first-language teaching


After introducing the main trends in the research on spoken discourse, the study considers three aspects concerning the description of dialogues. The first dichotomy is spoken versus written discourse; the second one concerns the question of intention and spontaneity; the third one is contrasting monologic and dialogic discourse. The goal of the study is to describe dialogues from a functional-cognitive perspective – based on the three oppositions and on the results of conversation analysis. Moreover, it also aims to explore how the results can be used for pedagogical purposes.

 

 

 

Workshop

Antalné Szabó, Ágnes

Old and new techniques of developing spelling culture

 

This study investigates the process of learning spelling from various perspectives. It points to the scenes of learning spelling within and outside school. It gives the main goals of learning spelling: to memorize and recall examples, to learn and apply spelling rules, and to learn how to use different resources and tools (i.e. reference books and spell check softwares). It elucidates the term code switching and its role in teaching and learning spelling. The paper discusses two major types of spelling operations: the ones learned with and without rules. For the latter type several practical ideas and teaching and learning techniques are introduced, most of which are related to the marking of vowels and consonants.

 

 

 

Konrád, Ágnes
Poetry analysis based on the activity and creativity of students


The study shows how to approach the intellectual interpretation of poems in primary school while retaining the love of poems and the experience of reciting poems. It introduces the drama methods of creating meaning which is based on the active participation of the pupils. Then particular lesson parts illustrate how  it is possible to – instead of turning poems into prose - make pupils more familiar with the deeper understanding and the intellectual-emotional experience of the poems by using drama methods.

 

 

 

Raátz, Judit
Creative writing exercises


Creative writing has been frequently discussed in the methodology of first and second language teaching today. In the study interpretations of two basic notions of creative writing are provided: as a method of developing artistic writing and as a teaching tool in education. First the study introduces the antecedents of creative writing in Hungary. It is followed by discussing the most important methodological aspects of this writing practice. Then it is placed into the system of developing and improving writing skills. Finally, a number of creative exercises are described that can be used to improve writing skills in first language classes.

 

 

 

Nemoda, Judit
First language lessons for developing critical thinking


A recent challenge for teachers nowadays is the successful development of the key competences. The author introduces possibilities and techniqueswhich help to realize this aim effectively. First the teacher training program RWCT (Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking) is discussed briefly. Then a grammar and a literature lesson demonstrate how student-centred methods related to the modern learning theories can be applied in practice: how the students’ critical thinking can be developed by applying the RJR model; and how the lessons can be made more vibrant and diverse with the help of cooperative techniques.

 

 

 

G. Gődény, Andrea – Koósné Sinkó, Judit
Developing language use with complex methods of language pedagogy in exercises with adjectives


A key issue of education today is how to develop the linguistic competence of students so that they can effectively communicate in their first language after leaving school. This ability is essential for the individual both in private and public spheres of life. This new perspective demands  new challenges  for public education as a whole, and especially for ”Hungarian teaching” responsible for the improvement of communication. It gives new tasks also for the experts responsible for integrating these preferences into the cross curriculum.
The present study analyzes a certain teaching unit of the competence-development process: a 45-minute lesson. This unit pays attention to the priorities of language development (integration, functionality and competence development). Here both traditional grammar with its complex system,  and methods of reflective learning and cooperative techniques are present.

 

 

 

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