Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
Ferenc Bagi UDC 376.7(497.12=945,11): 809.451.1:372.880 
Institute for the Hungarian 
Language and Literature 
and Hungarian Studies 
Faculty of Arts 
Novi Sad, Yugoslavia 
SOME TOPICAL QUESTIONS OF THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING THE 
HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE AS THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 
The tasks and objectives of teaching the language of the social 
environment can be summarized by the fact that the teaching of 
this subject of instruction ought to contribute to the 
desideratum that students belonging to various peoples and 
nationalities of Yugoslavia get acquainted with one another and 
understand one another as fully as possible. A closer description 
and the definition of the notion of achieving command of the 
language that is being learned, i.e. of the notion of linguistic 
and communicative competence - which is very interesting in our 
case as well - have been supplied by Dezs6 Laszlé, who quotes the 
widely accepted definition of S.P. Corder, according to whom in 
the course of teaching "the learner must develop the ability to 
produce and understand grammatical utterances; he must be able to 
distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sequences, but he must 
also know when to select a particular grammatical sequence, the 
one which is appropriate to the context, both linguistic and 
situational, His utterance must be situation-related. Or, to put 
it another way, he must not only learn to talk grammatically in 
the target language, he must also talk coherently and to the 
point." Defined in this way, knowledge of language certainly 
requires a good command of the given language, yet this 
linguistic competence cannot after all be equated with knowledge 
of the mother tongue. If the teaching of a foreign language and 
of the language of the social environment is to attain the above- 
defined level of language proficiency on the part of students, it 
must first solve a number of different problems, and solve them 
both theoretically and practically. One of these problems can be 
formulated as follows: What language sequences should be used at 
the start of the teaching of a foreign language/language of the 
social environment, if this beginning is really to stand for the 
starting-point in acquiring command of such an integral whole as 
language? The answer is not simple, especially because the goal 
is clear: after a reasonable time spent and the efforts made, the 
student should acquire command of the given language in 
accordance with the requirements of the level of proficiency 
described above. 
The efforts of experts in this field aimed at establishing 
successful teaching methods that would be also easy and 
acceptable for the student, reflect very accurately the solutions 
adopted by individual schools and championed by various 
directions in foreign-language teaching. For instance, in a 
  
* Original: Serbo-Croatian 
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grammar school foreign-language teaching was started by exercises 
in the pronunciation of the phonemes making up the language in 
question; the instruction thus began with the smallest sequence - 
the sound. On the contrary, the direct method began the process 
of teaching by concentrating on the sentence which, according to 
linguistic views of the time, was the largest and the most 
complete language unit. The proponents of this method firmly 
rejected all the solutions previously used by the grammar method 
in its teaching practice. 
Even if we are unable to identify, in the history of foreign- 
language teaching, more instances of such conflicting views as in 
the case of the two foregoing methods, we must nevertheless pay 
attention to the views and observations relating to foreign- 
language teaching as a branch of applied linguistics, because it 
can help us pinpoint the weaknesses in the present-day theory and 
practice of scientific foreign-language teaching. Szentgyérgyvari 
Arthar/Artur Sendjerdjvari/ points out perhaps the most topical 
question of all, that of the autonomy and specificity of foreign- 
language teaching pedagogy. In his view, “it is a fact that the 
state of incessant agitation and turmoil within the “basic 
disciplines" does not make foreign-language teaching methodology 
very suitable for furthering a systematic consideration of 
problems related to foreign languages. Next, it is well known 
that foreign-language teaching does not make up the core of 
either psychology or linguistics. Foreign-language pedagogy seems 
to be a child of fashion: at one time the emphasis is laid on new 
methods in language analysis, while at other times new views 0 
learning processes are also being harmonized. The pendulum swings 
between these two points, so that the history of foreign-language 
pedagogy emerges a a cyclic change of, new directions in 
linguistics and in the theory of learning." 
Dezsb Läszl6, whom we have already cited, in his work (1977) 
reproaches foreign-language teaching in Hungarian People's 
Republic for the failure which is reflected already in the goal 
stressed and in the formulation of the tasks of this teaching. To 
quote: "The major defect of foreign-language teaching in this 
country is mirrored also in the erroneously set teaching goals, 
the teaching being concentrated on the sentence and requiring 
correct wording of sentences rather than text production, even 
though it is well known that speech is realized through dialogues 
and texts and not through unconnected sentences.” 
Another teaching problem is highlighted by Fésiis Andras, who 
analyzes the teaching of vocabulary. He believes that "both the 
contents and the course of teaching and learning a foreign- 
language vocabulary represent that component of foreign-language 
instruction which has been worked out least consciously.” Fur- 
ther, "foreign-language instruction solves the problems of pro- 
nunciation and of the teaching of grammar of the given language, 
whereas questions of vocabulary teaching are put off until the 
time when the language learner is leaving school, i.e. leaving 
the site of organized teaching, so that the theory and practice 
of foreign-language teaching place these questions beyond their 
framework, thus seemingly not encountering them at all." 
On the basis of these facts we can conclude that the main feature 
of the theory and practice of foreign-language 
teaching up to now 
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Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
has been its incompleteness. The reason for this state of affairs 
should be sought primarily in the very fact that this scientific 
branch of linguistics and of pedagogy belongs in a group of 
applied social sciences, and that the theory of foreign-language 
teaching has either been too imprecise or has failed to be 
exhaustive enough in describing and defining those scientifically 
characteristic elements of theory and practice which emphasize 
the specificities of this branch of science. In default of such 
landmarks, those active in the field have tried to improve and 
promote both its theory and practice by analyzing scientifically 
both weighty and. less weighty problems; unfortunately, their 
approach to questions of foreign-language teaching (due to the 
state of affairs in this field as described above) has been 
fragmentary, so that e.g. questions of pronunciation and 
questions of the teaching of grammar were discussed as separate 
wholes, each in its own right, and the same was true of the other 
questions too. Instead, all the questions relating to foreign- 
language teaching should have been analyzed as component parts of 
the all-inclusive grammar within foreign-language teaching, 
Naturally enough, since interdependencies and interrelations 
permeating the questions in this field of scientific research 
were ignored, the results of research studies and practical work 
did not converge. Had they converged, however, it would not be 
possible now to conclude that scientific investigations 
associated with the teaching of foreign languages virtually 
passed over a major and significant component, that of the 
teaching of the vocabulary of the language being learned. The 
existing opposition can also be perceived between the objectives 
of this instruction and the volume of language materials which 
should help the student master the language concerned. That is to 
say, according to the practice that still prevails in the field 
of foreign-language teaching, the learner is taught to form 
sentences in the target language while being expected to have 
full competence in terms of writing as well as speaking. 
I believe that a way out of this situation could be sought on 
both theoretical and practical planes. As to theory, a closer 
definition ought to be devised of the specific features of 
foreign-language teaching as a scientific subfield of applied 
linguistics, while the practice of teaching itself should not be 
restricted to elements and sequences of language, but should 
rather start the teaching process with language at large, i.e. 
with the text, thus qualifying the student for the creation of 
spoken and written texts in the target language. I am using the 
notion of “text" in accordance with the definition provided by 
Deme Laszlé: "Text is the sequence of the individual's mental 
substance, which has been objectivized in language form and 
presented in that extensiveness and formedness which enables it - 
in the given situation - to create, while playing a general 
and/or informative and/or inflyential role, also the impression 
of integrity and completeness."” He ascertains and describes also 
the features in terms of which texts can be categorized. Here we 
cannot go into the presentation and evaluation of the elements 
which the author draws on for setting up those criteria with the 
aid of which it is possible to establish very clearly and 
precisely differences between and levels of the individual 
categories which are: text, constructed text, literary text, and 
poetic text. From the point of view of the teaching of foreign 
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Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
languages/ the language of the social environment, this classifi- 
cation of texts is very interesting and useful not least because 
of the divergent views of the application of literary texts in 
such teaching. According to some views, a literary text can be 
made use of already in the earlier phase of foreign-language 
learning, while on the other hand Robert Lado, for example, 
believes that "Literature must become a subject of instruction 
after the student has achieved that level of language proficiency 
and of the grasp of the culture in question which makes it possi- 
ble for him/her to experience it not unlike the native reader." 
A.A. Hill also points out that "...there exists a very real 
difficulty in the application of literature, because the literary 
language in many instances represents a departure from the lin- 
guistic structure bejng taught. It can be archaic, as in 
Shakespeare's poetry."’ For this reason, he suggests "...that 
literature used in language teaching be: (1) contemporary or 
almost contemporary, (2) written without deviations from everyday 
language, and (3) such as to offer a genuine insight into 
cultural values of the foreign culture. When all of these condi- 
tions have been fulfilled, I think that our selection of texts 
should be - or perhaps even can be - restricted to only those 
which are of great esthetic value." I believe that we need not go 
into the question of whether there are any opposite elements in 
the criteria proposed by individual authors. However, there are 
conflicting views related to such questions, the reason in my 
opinion being that the authors cited above as well as many others 
employ the term literature - like a terminological unit - as an 
expression of the concept of integrality and oneness, as though 
they were oblivious of the fact that the literature of each 
nation at the same time stands also for diversity, even in the 
case of the expression “contemporary literature" denoting the 
literature of today. The quandaries about the utilization of 
texts and types of text in the teaching of foreign languages/the 
language of the social environment, can be resolved by our accep- 
ting the thesis that there exist different categories of texts, 
and that therefore texts of a pedagogically appropriate complex- 
ity will be used in various stages of language instruction. 
Taking due account of the foregoing questions, as well as of some 
other - perhaps less important - unsolved problems in the theory 
and practice of the contemporary teaching of foreign languages 
and of languages of the social porivonment in Yugoslavia, I have 
adopted certain novel solutions® in my teaching of the Hungarian 
language as an optional subject at the Faculty of Arts in Novi 
Sad. In principle, the most salient points are the following 
ones: 
(1) that I start and conclude each lecture with a text; 
(2) that during the lecture the student participates actively in 
the work, encountering as she/he does texts of varying degree of 
sophistication; 
(3) that all the categories of text are utilized in the process 
of practice, acquisition, i.e. in furthering the student's skills 
of mastering the language (pronunciation, writing, reading, 
comprehension); and 
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Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
(4) that the system of exercises makes use of the vocabulary 
appearing in the texts, and successively follows the complexity 
of the texts. 
Because of the brevity of the teaching period (the Hungarian 
language is taught in the first two study years, i.e. four 
semesters in all), the students deal with with texts belonging to 
the following categories on Laslo Deme's scale: 
(a) text (children's songs, ditties) 
(b) constructed text (reading matter from mimeographed course 
materials, folk songs of love, folk tales, newspaper reports 
covering a variety of topics and genres) and 
(c) Literary text (selections from the Hungarian lyric poetry of 
the 19th century and of the beginning of the 20th century). 
My course in Hungarian begins with the text used for mastering 
the pronunciation of the phonemes making up the Hungarian 
phonological system, and for presenting the alphabet. I teach 
this by using children's songs accompanied by clapping 
(tapSalice), one song for each sound of Hungarian (except for the 
sounds dz and dzs [d2]j as well as ly [1j]). I have selected the 
songs in such a way that each contains many instances of the 
sound being practised. After this practice, mimeographed course 
materials are used where a string of words are given in which the 
same sound appears in various positions (initial, intervocalic, 
final). Practice lessons in the case of any given sound usually 
end with one or several sentences featuring prominently the sound 
being practiced. Naturally, in learning and practicing the 
pronunciation of the Hungarian phonemes by way of these texts, 
the learner acquires also the prosodic features of the language. 
Since the words of these children's songs are on the elementary 
level, the learner finds it easier to have to pronounce, in the 
initial phase of the process of language acquisition, short and 
simple words that are also basic, than having to cope with more 
complex texts with strings of words and more lengthy sentences 
containing more complicated and derived words. It is on this 
simple word stock that practice texts are based intended to 
present the system of noun endings (case endings), conjugation of 
verbs, and comparison of adjectives. The broadening of the 
learner's knowledge represents a prerequisite for work on more 
difficult texts, mainly short news reports. The vocabulary found 
there is the vocabulary for communication, and the language 
learner “acquires those concepts which she/he needs to 
communicate in the context of universal communication." (R. Lado, 
P. 145). Work on these texts is performed together with chapters 
in Hungarian word-formation. Examples for exercises in word- 
formation are furnished by the texts, and the corresponding basic 
word stock is supplied by the vocabulary of the children's songs 
referred to above (tapSalice), and of the strings of words and 
sentences included in the first part of mimeographed course 
materials, i.e. in the exercises designed for the acquisition of 
the Hungarian phonological system. In this manner, knowledge of 
words already acquired is further strengthened; what's more, the 
learner's vocabulary in Hungarian is enriched thanks to the 
practice in the word-formational process of suffixation. The 
latter is achieved in a comparatively easy way, because suffixal 
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Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
derivatives mostly preserve some sense components of base words, 
e.g. stol - stoLAR (table - carpenter). It is by way of exercises 
that the student is gradually trained to undertake the formation 
of syntagms, simple sentences, compound sentences, segments of 
the dialogue, and even the creation of shorter texts. In ‘dealing 
with these - more difficult - texts, the learner adds to the 
elements of pronunciation, reading, writing, and comprehension 
that she/he has acquired previously. A many-sided treatment of 
texts belonging to the subsequent category, that of literary 
texts, should increase the level of these skills, achieving the 
degree of proficiency that already approaches that of the average 
native speaker of Hungarian. 
The didactic gradualness not only enables one to apply in the 
course of teaching texts of different categories/levels, but also 
epitomized the possibility of placing at the learner's disposal 
many-sided information about the nation/nationality whose native 
language she/he has been learning. In this way, the goal of 
bringing together the nations/nationalities through instruction 
is implemented. 
This paper could not even touch on all the topical questions of 
the theory and practice of teaching a foreign language and the 
language of the social environment today. Neither have I been 
able to outline all the elements of the solutions that I make use 
of in my everyday practice. I do hope, however, that I have 
succeeded in highlighting some of the most topical questions of 
such teaching. I have discussed my work because by presenting my 
practice-tested solutions, I have wished to underscore the 
compactness and complexity of the question of teaching foreign 
languages and languages of the social environments in this 
country. 
Notes 
1. Dezso, L., 1979, A nyelvtudomd4ny szerepe az idegennyelv- 
oktat4s komplex megkSzelitésében (The Role of Linguistics in its 
Complex Process of Approaching Foreign-Language Instruction), A 
TIT Idegennyelv-oktatdsi Csoportjdnak kiadvdanyai, Budapest, P- 
54; Corder, 1973, p. 93. 
2. Szentgyôrgyvéri, A., 1968, "Jeziéna nastava ili pedagogija 
komunikacije?" (Language Instruction or the Pedagogy of 
Communication?), in R. Pilipovié, ed.,Aktivne metode i moderna 
pomagala u nastavi stranih jezika. Predavanja i referati odrZani 
na 10. kongresu FIPLV u Zagrebu, 5-9 April, 1968 (Active Methods 
and Modern Aids in the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Papers from 
the 10th FIPLV Congress, Zagreb, 5-9 April, 1968), Skolska 
knjiga, Zagreb, 1971. 
3. Dezsdé, Ibid., p. 96 
4. Féstis, A., 1977, A székincs tanitdsdnak médszertani kérdései 
az idegennyelv-oktatdsban (Educative Questions of Vocabulary 
Teaching in Foreign-Language Instruction), Modern Nyelvoktatäs. À 
felnétt-oktat4s taékoztatéja. À TIT Idegennyelv-oktatäsi 
Kôzpontajänak Kiadvényai. Tudoményos Ismeretterjesztb Térsulat, 
208

Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
Budapest, 1977, p. 55. 
5. Deme, L., 1979, "A sziveg alaptermészetérél” (On the Basic 
Nature of Text) in I. Szathm4ri and I. Vdrkonyi, eds.,SzSvegtan a 
kutat4sban és az oktatdsban, Kiadja a Magyar Nyelvtudomdnyi 
Târsasäg, Budapest, 1979, p. 64. 
6. Lado, R., 1968, Nastava stranih jezika - Nauëni pristup 
(Foreign Language Instruction: A Scientific Approach), 
Svijetlost, Sarajevo, p. 173. 
7. Hill, A.A., 1971, "KnjiZevni tekstovi u jeziénoj nastavi" 
(Literary Texts in Language Teaching), in Predavanja i referati 
odrZani na 10. kongresu FIPLV, Zagreb, 1971, pp. 399-400. 
8. They appear in the following publication: Bagi, Ferenc, 
Madjarski jezik (The Hungarian Language). Parts 1 and 2. 
Mimeographed course materials. Novi Sad, 1983. Published by the 
Institute for the Hungarian Language and Literature and for the 
Hungarian Studies, with the financial support of the self- 
managing community of interest for higher education of the 
Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. 
209