Historical Aspects of Early Contacts of Slovaks with English

Abstract

This study is devoted to tracing, presenting and linguo-culturally interpreting some of the aspects of the early history of the contacts of Slovaks with the English language. Although English in Slovakia started to be of interest to several men of letters already in the 18th century, the need for it as means of communication only arose in the US in the second half of the 19th century among Slovak immigrants. The paper focuses above all on Janko Slovenský’s book as the first material assisting Slovaks in the acquisition of English, and analyses its content, educational merit and cultural value. Also surveyed is the history of the first dictionaries contrasting English and Slovak. The final part introduces the beginnings of English studies in Slovakia dating from the early 1920s, and their early development. The study offers insight into an educationally important subject that so far has only marginally received scholarly attention.