Special Challenges of Teaching Hungarian Language in the American Higher Education

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In order to create effective syllabi, class lesson plans, and offer the best help we can to our students, we need not only to be aware of the needs of our institutions, programs and departments, but also of a much bigger context of Hungarian language teaching. Hungarian language faces special challenges as part of the LCTL (Less Commonly Taught Languages) in the context of American university language programs.
What features should we take into consideration when we teach Hungarian at an American university? How can the ACTFL guidelines, the ILR and the OPI testing systems help us in our everyday teaching? How can a Standards-based Hungarian curriculum or syllabus contribute to the quality of our language programs? But first of all, how can the Hungarian Standards be created? How can Standards assist us, language teachers, in developing our Standards-based curricula? The basic document, “Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century” (1996) reflects a progression in our understanding of how language is used and also gives a basic concept of what we currently think about foreign language teaching in the USA.
The goal of my presentation would be not only to draw our attention to the existing contexts of teaching Hungarian language in the USA or how to be part of a Standards-based system, but also to explore what Standards are and what they are not. I would also like to invite my colleagues, teaching Hungarian at other American universities to cooperate developing the Hungarian Standards, the model of which could be the existing documents of other LCTL Standards.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Valeria Varga has been a visiting lecturer, later a lecturer of Hungarian language since 2005 at Indiana University, Bloomington. She graduated from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest in Hungarian, English and Russian language and literature. She received her Professional Teacher's Degree in 2005, with specialization in mentoring, teacher training, testing and test developing. She first taught Hungarian at IU between 1995 and 1998 as a visiting lecturer.