Ukrainian language teaching

Herbert gives a detailed report on the development of Ukrainian language teaching at educational establishments. He claims at the very beginning, which he defines as the academic year of 1993/94, no specialists or course books were available; therefore anyone regardless of his/her major could teach Ukrainian:

And as soon as Ukraine was formed, since then it became obligatory. It became obligatory from the 1993/94 academic year. We started to teach this language, when there were no course books, no teachers.

Those teachers learnt Ukrainian, who could use the language. It could be a teacher of Physics, or Chemistry. It is connected with that that nobody never learnt Ukrainian in that settlement and didn’t know Ukrainian, there were no specialists of Ukrainian [Interview with Herbert, p. 3].

Herbert goes on by commenting that state language teaching went through much development during the last twenty years:

Twenty years went by of Ukraine, we can already draw comparisons, what we had fifteen years ago and now, and there is a great difference. We started out from nothing. When there were no teachers, no course books, we didn’t have anything. Now, there are course books [Interview with Herbert, p. 4].

Along with the developments in Ukrainian language teaching, there are still problems language education specialists have to face. Paula suggests altering the curriculum of Ukrainian language teaching for minorities in a way to make it more similar to foreign language programmes:

Curriculum, I don’t know whether we can say such things now, as teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language. It is the state language, but its teaching methods are not like teaching foreign languages, if it could change a little, not completely, but only a little bit. Perhaps, specialists in the ministry, who make up programmes. They could make something, so that kids would understand more. Do you understand it? The very nature of language teaching methods. Ukrainian in Hungarian classes; and it appears to me, that then more kids would learn the language, much more [Interview with Paula, p. 6].

While Paula thinks that there is a need for changing the curriculum, by making it more suitable for ethnic minority learners, Dorothy is certain that there is no way to change the educational programme that has already been approved:

That is curriculum, I cannot comment on it, it is the curriculum of the Ministry of Education, and it is approved. Therefore, it is not within my competence to comment on it or change it, as it is already approved [Interview with Dorothy, p. 4].

Susanne complains that it is hard to access teaching resources for Ukrainian language teaching:

So, I know that I asked my relatives, who live in Kiev, to find something of Ukrainian language for me.

They say: “You know, it is much easier to find something of foreign languages, than some materials of Ukrainian” Especially it is with Ukrainian for Hungarians…I have some old books on Ukrainian for Russians. Similar to those just for Hungarians are only a few. If only there were more books like of that type that made the child interested. No, there aren’t any. It is necessary to search and make up exercises [Interview with Susanne, pp. 2-3].

Still several problems connected with state language teaching are also named, mainly by Herbert. They include that the majority of Ukrainian teachers are just Russian teachers who were trained for Ukrainian studies:

..there were Russian teachers at school, but Russian has declined. Earlier there was a state where Russian was obligatory. Many Russian philologists trained to become Ukrainian philologists. Now, still a huge part of Ukrainian teachers is made up of Russian philologists. There is such at schools. There are very good teachers among them, and there are those whose Ukrainian should be at a higher level. And that is why it is a problem [Interview with Herbert, p. 3].

Perhaps the unfilled gaps in the Ukrainian language teacher training programme can give one reason for explaining the deficiencies that can be observed in Ukrainian teachers’

language competence. Another problematic issue is the lack of qualified Ukrainian teachers in primary classes:

The problem also remains, that not all teachers of primary classes, who work at these schools, not each of them knows Ukrainian to that level, that they could teach it. There, too, if there is a Ukrainian philologist, who can replace her, and where there isn’t there it goes rather really bad. The child falls behind in the primary classes of Ukrainian learning, and then s/he goes to the fifth form and there problems appear [Interview with Herbert, p. 3].

Next problem according to Herbert is that Hungarian learners are mostly surrounded by Hungarian-speaking people; therefore they hear Ukrainian only at the language classes: “The second problem is that the child lives in such an environment, in a Hungarian-speaking environment. And no-one ever talks in Ukrainian. It is also a problem, that she hears Ukrainian only at the Ukrainian language classes” [Interview with Herbert, p. 3].

Very often happens that even parents cannot help, as they themselves learnt Russian at

studied at school, and finished higher educational establishments or even teachers themselves of other subjects. They also studied and know Russian. They don’t know Ukrainian. Therefore they cannot help kids” [Interview with Herbert, p. 3].

As we can conclude from the last three quotes language class experience forms a very important part in the language learning process. Let us examine in detail what else is perceived by the respondents to dominate in the language learning process.