Teaching Foreign Students in English in Hungary

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
In order to survive the restructuring of the Hungarian higher education system, the College of Szolnok decided to admit to degree programs tuition paying foreign students. The classes for these students are held in English; but are open to the regular students as well. The first groups of foreign students came from China. The popular perception is that foreign language teaching help bring a target culture to learners, but in this case, both the students and the faculty are using English as an intermediary teaching tool. Teaching in English doubly impacts classroom processes because it is a significant factor in how teachers and students perceive learning and how they evaluate each other’s roles and classroom performance. Our experience in Szolnok is similar to what the ESL literature shows, namely, that Chinese students resist pair and group work, and often refuse to answer questions posed in class. Introducing these students to Hungarian life and culture is an additional goal that the college faculty must meet. This paper will discuss the experiences of faculty at Szolnok in teaching college courses in English, at the same time trying to acclimatize these foreign students to Hungarian culture and the customs.


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