The Expedience of the Termini online Hungarian–Hungarian Dictionary in the Process of Teaching Hungarian as a Foreign Language (in Transcarpathia)

Abstract

Despite the fact that nationalities, ethnicities living in the territory of present day Transcarpathia, mainly the Slavic population (Russians, Ukrainians, Rusins) and the Hungarian population have been living next to each other for centuries, they naturally influence each other politically, culturally and linguistically – still there are no traditions of teaching Hungarian as a foreign language or the language of the environment, or of Hungarian being learned by other ethnicities or those belonging to the majority population. The prestige of the Hungarian language, the demand for learning Hungarian as a foreign language has grown significantly in the past few years in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. The possibility of teaching Hungarian as a foreign language within an institutional framework, as well as in the state education system was realized with the passing of the language law in 2012. A keen interest could and can still be observed in the possibility to learn Hungarian as a foreign language, and in the courses provided for adult groups in particular. The primary language learning aim of the HFL-learners is certainly to get acquainted with the standard forms of the target language. The objective of the institutional language teaching can as well be to have the learners acquire the standard language variety. The present study is aimed at introducing the idea of a practical usability of the vocabulary material of the Termini online dictionary within the process of teaching Hungarian as a foreign language, putting a special emphasis on the objectives and situation of the HFL-education in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. We would like to highlight the possibility of applying the material of the dictionary in particular cases of language learning objectives, on a proper level of language acquisition certain entries of the dictionary can be well incorporated in the educational process. The Termini online dictionary, in its present build and structure, is not a dictionary formed for educational purposes, however while preparing modern educational materials (the MagyarOK set of coursebooks for instance) it is inevitable these days for linguists and language teachers to integrate linguistic achievements and apply text corpora and databases. The above mentioned fact is the reason why we would like to highlight the possibilities included in the Termini dictionary.