Interviews with Educational Managers

The three interviews yielded both similar and different results. The interview protocol, the piloting of which has been previously described in detail, can be found in Appendix 11. At the very start of each of the three interviews, the researcher explained the construct of reading aloud to the interviewee in order to prevent misunderstanding between the interviewer and the subjects.

In the following, the answers of the educational managers, or methodology consultants, will be discussed question by question.

Question 1: How important do you think it is that learners learn to read well in English at the beginning stage of studying a foreign language?

There was a consensus among the opinions of the three methodology consultants, because they all believed it necessary and important for a learner to learn to read well in the initial stages of his foreign language learning, because this would help him learn foreign language vocabulary better. Anna explained it in this way:

It is very important, because I believe that as a child learns to read a word in English, it 27.

will be ‘recorded’ in the child’s mind in this way. (Anna)

Question 2: What role does reading aloud play in the language lesson?

Again, the advisors agreed on the importance of reading aloud in the English lessons, al-though they gave various explanations for it. However, all of them mentioned the role the tech-nique of learner reading aloud played in acquiring proper pronunciation. This fully supports the views expressed by English language teachers in an investigation carried out in Transcarpathia about the purposes of use of this technique in the lessons of English (Huszti, 2003a, b). Clara also added that this technique had a great role in lower primary classes:

It obviously has a place in the lesson. After a reading aloud session they speak better, 28.

especially in lower primary classes. (Clara)

Question 3. Do you think it depends on the nationality – Hungarian, Ukrainian, or Russian – of the language learner?

There was a divergence of views concerning this question because Anna and Barbara agreed that nationality of the learners influenced the way they read out loud in English, while Clara thought this impact was insignificant and could not be regarded as an influence at all:

Nationality has no influence on reading aloud. Perhaps sometimes there are mistakes 29.

that are typical for Russian or Hungarian learners, but these are not significant. (Clara)

In contrast, Anna and Barbara believed that learners of different nationalities read aloud in English in different ways, and that Hungarian children were in a very good position concerning this question:

Learners’ nationality does influence foreign language learning success, and also the 30.

way learners read aloud. For some children some languages are easier to learn because of the similarities between their native language and the target language. Hungarian children are advantaged in this respect. (Barbara)

This was further explained by Anna who was certain that

… learners of different nationalities read aloud in English in a different way. I think 31.

Hungarian children are advantaged because their native language has more sounds than the two Slavonic languages – e.g. in Hungarian, we have a very similar sound to the English one in the word girl, which does not exist in Russian or Ukrainian. That is why it is easier for Hungarian children to acquire English pronunciation. Moreover, both English and Hungarian use the Latinate alphabet, whereas Russian and Ukrainian use the Cyrillic one. (Anna)

This view can be supported by the findings of research carried out in Transcarpathia with the aim to define the similarities and differences in pronunciation between Hungarian and Ukrai-nian learners of English when reading aloud (Huszti, 2001).

Question 4: Based on your experiences, do teachers have learners read aloud in the English lessons in schools with Hungarian language of instruction in Transcarpathia? With what purposes?

What benefits can learners or teachers get from this?

All the three experts agreed that teachers used the technique of reading aloud in the English lessons, although Barbara commented that they did not apply it so often as they should have to.

When mentioning the benefits learners could get from its application, they were of the same opin-ion which was most clearly articulated by Clara:

First of all, for the learners it’s pronunciation. Pupils in the Forms 5 and 6 are very 32.

active. And reading is one of the tasks which every pupil can do quite well. That’s why they want to read. This is because they practise reading most often. They can read well, and they want to get a good mark with the help of reading. And I think they are motivated in this way. Also, they are not getting bored. Those younger children are eager to listen to their peers. We can’t get our older learners in Forms 10 and 11 to read aloud, they don’t want to listen to their fellows and their peers don’t want to listen to their loud reading, either. But the psychology of younger children is such that they want to listen again and again. (Clara)

Anna mentioned the factors of learners’ inhibition and anxiety which she thought were closely connected and she expressed her view that reading aloud helped the child a lot to overcome his inhibitions:

Reading aloud has many advantages for those learners who are otherwise often 33.

inhibited. These learners can overcome their inhibitions through reading aloud. When the teacher asks the learner orally, the child starts to feel anxious because he is in the focus of attention in the class, and this often inhibits him in giving a correct answer.

But when reading aloud, the other learners’ attention is directed to the book and the text being read and the child’s tension is eased. (Anna)

It is interesting that this opinion had been previously pronounced by a teacher of Eng-lish working in a school situated in Anna’s district. This view is also supported by Stronin (1986) in that oral reading helps learners overcome psychological barriers and fear of begin-ning to talk in English.

Concerning the benefits English teachers could get from the application of the reading aloud technique in the foreign language lessons, Barbara considered that

Through learners’ loud reading the teacher can judge how well the learners know 34.

English, or how well they can pronounce words. (Barbara)

Question 5: What role do you think reading aloud plays in developing learners’ reading skills?

Again, the subjects were of the same opinion that the reading aloud technique bore impor-tance in developing learners’ reading skills, though they did not mention which sub-skills they meant exactly (skimming, scanning, etc.) The importance they attached to this technique was ex-plained in a most detailed way by Anna:

With reading aloud the child has a chance to learn to read correctly and well. If he 35.

reads well, he will learn the words or foreign language vocabulary well and will speak correctly. The learner, who cannot read well, will not only speak incorrectly, but will also write and spell words incorrectly, in my view. (Anna)

Question 6: Does the National Curriculum for Foreign Languages ‘prescribe’ the use of learners’ reading aloud in the English lessons? If so, are there any criteria for this? (E.g. reading aloud for a certain time slot, etc.)?

There was a slight disagreement about the fact whether the National Curriculum for Foreign Languages (1998) announces the use of the reading aloud technique as obligatory in the foreign language classroom. However, all the three interviewees agreed that it was included in the Curricu-lum implicitly; there were some hints about its use but no clear-cut application criteria exist.

Question 7. Do the educational authorities in Transcarpathia require from teachers of English in Hungarian schools that they use the technique of learners’ reading aloud in the Eng-lish lessons?

The answers to this question were both positive and negative. The latter one by Barbara and Clara presents controversy, namely, that the application of this technique is not forced on the teachers, it is not a ‘must’ for them, nevertheless, they mostly use this technique, as indicated in the answers to Question 4 of the present interview protocol.

Summary

Although there were some points on which the advisors did not agree, on the whole, it can be stated that the interviewees, despite working in different parts or districts of Transcarpathia, agreed and were of the same opinion about most of the crucial issues that were touched upon in the interview.

All the three of them strongly believed in the importance and necessity of the application of the learners’ reading aloud technique in the English lessons. They explained that the national-ity of the learners had some influence on the way they read aloud and came to the conclusion that Hungarian children had certain advantages.

Based on their experience as methodology advisors, they claimed that the reading aloud technique was widely applied by teachers in schools in the districts they were responsible for.

The application of it was not a requirement set by the National Curriculum for Foreign Languages (1998), or the Ministry of Education and Science of the Ukraine, so a possible reason why teachers applied this technique might have been that they were aware of and sure about its usefulness and value in English language teaching.