3. 2021.

Abstracts in English

Studies

Svindt, Veronika

Hidden Communication Disorder: Pragmatic Communication Disorder

Pragmatic communication disorder (PCD) as an independent diagnostic category appeared in DSM-5, published in 2013, among language and communication disorders. In international practice, the symptoms of children who have severe social-communication and pragmatic difficulties despite their seemingly typical language development path on the surface, were first described in the 1980s (Rapin ‒ Allen 1983). In Hungary, the recognition, screening, and diagnosis of this developmental disorder, as well as the development of intervention methods are currently in the initial stages. Children with PCD, due to their often hidden developmental disorders, are at an increasing and more spectacular disadvantage during their school ages compared to their typically developing peers, and this manifests in learning difficulties, behavioural problems, attention difficulties, and social and communication disorders. The aim of the present study is to introduce teachers to the symptoms and everyday manifestations of PCD so that they can better identify children, who may be affected, among their students.

Imrényi, András

Topic? Focus? Proposals for a reform in the teaching of Hungarian word order

The paper makes the case for a reform in the teaching of Hungarian word order, in both L1 and L2 environments. It is argued that the notions of topic and focus, taken over from generative accounts of Hungarian, are suboptimal for the purpose of teaching this area of grammar. In line with Sámuel Brassai’s original discoveries about information structure, it is proposed that topics are just a subtype of a broader category of contextualizers, providing supporting context for the smooth processing and intended interpretation of a message. Immediately preverbal elements bearing the main stress of the sentence (so-called foci) are described not in terms of an empty slot that may be filled by various expressions but rather in terms of their relation to the verb. This relation is termed overriding. The paper also makes comments on how to bring the analyses closer to students, for example by drawing a parallel between contextualization in the sentence and the attachment of hashtags to an image.

Mendrey, Zsófia

Measuring reading comprehension of digital and printed texts among high school students

The topic of this paper is measuring high school students’ comprehension of printed and digital texts , and comparing the measurement results. The empirical study in the paper is based on two performance tests measuring the comprehension of a printed and a digital text. The tests were completed by 400 students. The study was carried out in 3 schools in the country and 3 schools in the capital. It took gender differences and different performances in thinking operations into account. The research found that students in the survey performed better in the comprehension of the printed text than on the digital comprehension worksheet, and it also turned out that girls performed better in both paper-based and digital comprehension tests than boys. However, the digital education as a result of the COVID-19 may have resulted in a major change in the development of these competencies. This is why it might be worthwhile to expand the research further and examine the changes generated by this forced situation.

Workshop

Takács, Judit

Teaching linguistic origin and affinity with a project. Methodological possibilities and teachers’ experiences

In the National Curriculum, renewed in 2020, there is less time assigned for the topic of the origin and relatedness of the Hungarian language both in 8^th and 12^th grade compared to previous practice. The narrow time frame and complexity of the topic make teachers use frontal methods, mostly teacher explanation. This often proves less effective due to the complexity of the topic. The extracurricular (digital) education taking place in public education in primary and secondary schools, for the second year now, has highlighted the need for methods which provide opportunities for extracurricular and home-learning and individual or group processing of topics. Previous research shows that project work is a quite rarely used method in Hungarian education. A research was conducted on this topic among teachers of Hungarian language and literature, which confirmed the results of previous studies. Teachers who use the project method to process the above mentioned topic describe it as an effective, successful method.

Urbán, Péter

Learning texts by heart and digital education in native language education

The problem of learning texts by heart is a kind of reducing mirror of the most recent methodological conundrum in the subject of Hungarian language and literature. The aim of this paper is to describe the problems which coincide with the important challenges of the professional design of digital learning environments in a particular way. Learning texts by heart makes us reflect on areas such as the content and quality of the knowledge acquired during the Hungarian language and literature lessons, the relationship between literature and language, and also form the attitude towards subject-related activities, especially reading. Learning texts by heart could seem controversial for shallow thinking from several aspects. Heritage of the oldest pedagogy, however, is received quite positively in the most modern pedagogical paradigms. External storages and their mobility make it unnecessary, however, this redundancy is exactly what makes it especially indispensable. This paradox situation might convince us that we have to consider the most recent technologies not only as a means of substitution, but as something important in its own right.