Summary of the results

3.8.1 Language learning

As detailed above, three languages were investigated in the research from the point of view of what the pupils attitude to them was like, what improvement they showed in these languages during the time under investigation, if parental support or example could be detected in their attitude or results, and what role these languages played in their school and social life.

The overall positive attitude toward English at the first time shows their com-mitment to conduct their studies in this language, and the decrease in the scores by the end of the period shows that English became a subject for them which needed effort ex-pended in. Although they were ready to invest into learning the language, but, as they voiced it in their report, they realised that there were other factors determining their grades, such as behaviour, tests as punishment, teachers bias (mood, subjectivity, label-ling). 14 pupils addressed this issue. Most pupils have never been to an English speak-ing country thus lackspeak-ing the motivatspeak-ing factor the familiarity with the native language used in the native environment can strengthen. On the other hand, for them English is the means of integration into the closer English speaking community. Parental support is obvious in the case of nine pupils. The lack of English knowledge on the part of the parents can be an indirect motivating factor: the Turkish girl is proud of being the inter-preter for the family. The teachers comment on the difficulty of having contact with the parents of the non-Hungarian pupils: they come with interpreters or take their child to translate for them when they want to meet the teachers.

The pupils’ interest in the English language is clearly pragmatic: they see it as the means of their career in the short and long run, the means of their academic career, but the means of finding their place in the English speaking community, the school, the class. That is what the low scores for the questions about interest in English speaking countries and the people living there suggest.

The lower scores for the second foreign language in general suggest that com-pared to English it is less important because they see less benefit from knowing it. But their attitude toward the subject is positive, although for four of the pupils learning German it was not a choice.

The non-Hungarian pupils are friendly toward the language and the community, they intend to learn the language as it is the means of their immediate benefit from knowing the language, the means of finding their place in the wider community.

3.8.2 English proficiency and subject knowledge

Upon enrolling the level of English of the pupils is very diverse. It gets a little more balanced by the second test but still there are pupils whose level of English does not reach band 6, the optimum level by the end of year 2 (declared by the school au-thorities). This diverse level is not reflected in the overall grades, either in the grades received in different subjects. The explanation lies in the different nature of the subjects requiring different language skills and different levels of cognitive effort, in the teach-ers’ subjective judgement very often assessing effort, behaviour rather than achieve-ment. Another factor is the pupils’ interest in the subjects: one of them choosing as her favourite a subject in which she does not have good grade, most pupils name the subject as one she or he likes the least which they have difficulty in. Motivation to learn a sub-ject is not a matter of language knowledge. On the other hand, being interested may mo-tivate the pupil to be able to take part in the lesson as in the case of the Chinese boy who himself notes in his report how active he is in the English literature lesson.

Apart from the Chinese, all the pupils state that their achievement would be the same if they learnt in their native language. One Hungarian pupil notes that he would probably have worse marks if he learnt in Hungarian because he does not know the Hungarian equivalent of many words in certain subjects such as biology. The Hungarian English teacher complains that there is no native language knowledge that could help the non-Hungarian pupils to understand linguistic explanations. According to the teach-ers, there are eight pupils in the class whose level of English hinders their achievement:

the four Chinese because of their low enrolment level, the Russian boy and three

Hun-garians who do not extend enough effort in enriching their vocabulary. The teachers’

assessment of the pupils’ English knowledge is not unanimous: the native speaker of English has no problem in understanding the Chinese pupils while for most teachers it is problematic.

3.8.3 Group formation

The results of the intergroup behaviour and the learning style questionnaires – the majority of the pupils declared themselves to prefer working with others to working by themselves - show the potential in the class that the pupils could work well together.

The sociometric test shows that the deciding factor in the group formation proc-ess is gender when the question is about their social life. In the case of the non-Hungarians, ethnicity is also strong ties. When the requirement is to fulfil a task, the choices show attempts to break gender and ethnicity barriers and point to the apprecia-tion of study achievement, except for the Chinese girls, who – regardless the nature of the question – always choose each other. Seemingly it cannot be explained by the lack of either English or Hungarian language knowledge regarding the grades in these sub-jects because they are not worse than those of some of the other non-Hungarians. On the other hand, they are the ones who note that their results would be better if they learnt in their native language. The Hungarian and Turkish girls choose them but their choice is not mutual. In their case, apart from the insufficient English language proficiency, the bigger (not measured in the study but indicated by them in their self report) cultural dis-tance and the different social routine seem to account for the unwillingness to merge with pupils of other nationalities. Although their answers to the questions about the de-sired contact with the English speaking and the Hungarian environment show the wish to have, they seem to be unable to act according to their wish. The Turkish girl’s lower

complain that she learns from Hungarian books very often - regarding her position in the class. The Bulgarian and Russian boys’ English proficiency makes it possible for them to be members of the strongest subgroup.

The subgroups are strong during the one-year period. The pupils’ attitude re-garding the task related aspect of the test does not change. By the end of the year, the girls’ group loosens its closed unit and lets in those boys who cannot or do not want to join the strong circle of the first subgroup, the members of which are the same four Hungarians and one Bulgarian, twice allowing the Russian boy to enter the subgroup.

Chapter 4 The summary of findings and their relation to those of the pilot study