Language learning experience of first year English majors as they see it

Abstract

The results of previous surveys carried out at the Department of English Language Teacher Education and Applied Linguistics of the University of Szeged show that the majority of English majors is not prepared enough for their studies, their level of proficiency and study skills are often not satisfactory, and they have difficulty in assessing their own strengths, weaknesses and the reasons for being unsuccessful (Doró, 2010). Arising from the previously mentioned conclusions, the present paper aims to find out more about first-year English majors’ study skills, strategies and self-perception in the form of five semi-structured group interviews. The students’ answers shed light on what aspects of studying students have problems with, how they monitor and adjust their own studying process, what their goals are and what methods they use to become more fluent speakers and better students.

Imagined future teacher self at the point of entry to teacher education

“…Interestingly, for almost half of the reviewed teacher cases, students discussed negative teacher examples to illustrate what is lacking in ineffective teachers. In earlier studies with Hungarian students we could also see a difference between the perceptions of first-year students, those close to graduation and in-service teachers (Doró & T. Balla, 2014, 2019. Students in the first-year group suggested a student's perspective rather than that of a prospective teacher.…”

“…As part of a longitudinal study, in September 2016, during their first weeks of study, students were asked to write a take-home essay in English of at least 500 words with the title "My professional future, the way I see it at the moment". Based on earlier studies (e.g., Doró, 2010Doró, , 2011Dupák, 2019) and the researcher's own experience working with similar student populations, it was foreseen that some of the students would be at B2 English proficiency level or lower, had not written long essays in English and would have difficulty elaborating on the topic without some guidance. Therefore, the following optional orienting questions were suggested from which they could focus on as many as they wished and were also free to add other focal points.…”