This year, 21 Hungarian and international students attending the BA or the teacher-training programme in English and American studies and 8 MA students from Hungary and abroad participated in the language course in order to develop their international speaking skills.
Students attending Indiana University Bloomington designed lesson plans under the supervision of Beatrix Burghardt, lecturer of the Department of Second Language Studies in Bloomington. By participating in the programme, they also completed their mandatory teaching practice. At the University of Debrecen, senior lecturer Éva Kardos, head of the Department of English Linguistics coordinated the programme.
- The main goal of the programme is to develop language skills by allowing students to learn assertive communication through talking with young people who were born and live in the US. Students can also gain cultural experience and become familiar with the Anglo-Saxon argument culture, which they may utilise later, for instance as participants of research projects – explained Éva Kardos to hirek.unideb.hu.
Out of the BA students, 14 first-year students majoring in English practised everyday work-related situations with American students participating in a teacher training programme for 8 weeks, using Zoom.
Seven third-year BA students interested in linguistics and 8 MA students studying linguistics practiced various skills required in the area of science in the Saturday classes.
The students of the Institute who participated in the programme were happy to share their experience with the university’s news centre.
Hajian Foroozan was one of the UD students who participated in the course. He is of Iranian descent, was born in Dubai, and lives in the United Arab Emirates. He said that his main reason for choosing UD had been the reputation of the university, but he also had relatives and friends in Debrecen.
- I come from a multilingual family, so out of the available subjects, language was the most interesting area for me. I had a chance to observe and compare how people from different cultures or speaking different languages related to each other. I realised how different the British and the American cultures were – said Hajian Foroozan.
- It was very interesting to learn from native speakers, but I was also interested in how American English differed from the English that we learn in Hungary. I found it useful to learn words that were used in the US, but not in the UK – summed up her experience Viktória Barabás, 3rd-year student of the English and American Studies course.
Nikolett Kiss will continue her studies in the English linguistics MA programme.
- It was my first time in this very useful programme. I feel that both my language and professional skills have developed. We had an excellent relationship with our teacher in the group. Our major topic was bilingualism, because almost all of us spoke at least three languages, so we were all interested in this area. Next year, if the course is still available, I will apply again – said Nikolett Kiss.
Dániel Bodnár, first-year student of the English language – History teacher training programme thinks that the programme was highly useful, because participants had a chance to significantly develop their English language skills.
- We were given homework at the end of each class. To complete these exercises, we had to make voice recordings in line with the topics we had discussed in the previous class. My personal favourite was the session when we examined the method of interrupting based on a scene from A New Hope, Star Wars episode 4. We had to complete the task either as Darth Vader or as a Commander of the ship – recalled Dániel Bodnár.
The course ended with an oral exam on 30 April. The Institute is planning to announce the programme in the spring of 2023 for students attending the BA, the MA or the teacher training programme in English and American Studies.
Press Centre - BZs
