Elsőéves angol szakos hallgatók nyelvtudása és nyelvtanulói háttere tanulmányaik kezdetén
Language Proficiency and Language Learning Background of First-Year English Major Students

Author(s): Ágnes Tápainé Balla, Beatrix Bajnóczi
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: language proficiency; language learning; Hungary
Summary/Abstract: As instructors of the Department of English Language Teacher Education and Applied Linguistics at the University of Szeged, we have been keeping track of the language proficiency of students entering the English and American Studies, and more recently that of the English teacher trainees. In the past years, our own observations have been supplemented with placement tests as well as questionnaires aiming at surveying the students’ language learning background. We have been applying these in an attempt to gain accurate information on what prior language knowledge our students have and what plans and expectations they arrive with at the start of their tertiary studies. In our former publications, we described our students’ real language proficiency as well as their own conception of their proficiency level (T. Balla-Bajnóczi 2015, Bajnóczi-T. Balla 2015). As a starting point for the present publication, we have mapped such background information, which we believe to be of major importance from the perspective of the language proficiency and language learning strategies of our students (T. Balla-Bajnóczi 2017 [in press]). The students’ answers provided us with information about their motivation to engage in English studies, their self-assessment, and how they view their own role and responsibility in developing their language proficiency in English. We have asked the same questions from our colleagues teaching first graders on a regular basis. Their answers are informative of the differences between the instructors’ expectations and the students’ background in reality

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