MTA-NYTI Languag-E-Chance Educational Research Group
The Languag-E-Chance project is realised on the professional-scientific basis of the Research
Centre for Multilingualism of the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences.
One of the policies of our project is the importance of language and language-related
knowledge in the many fields of education and learning, and the importance of being familiar
with language diversity and language use diversity and the influencing factors; furthermore
the research of the linguistic aspects of learning and acquiring knowledge. Our other policy is
to create and to follow a methodology that is based on empiric knowledge (based on the most
recent scientific knowledge, including findings of linguistics, cognitive psychology,
neurolinguistics, pragmatics-discourse analysis, sociology and information technology) and
helps both formal and informal student groups across many fields of study, without a rigid
relation to school subjects and aids them with the digital and information technologies of the
21st century. These ways and new methods of learning-aid – especially those connected to
language use – are exceptionally important in the education of deaf children, where
linguistic access and consciousness, bilingual education and teaching is a defining factor not
only of school success, but in the general, cognitive and social development of the children as
well. The above presented approach, methodology and innovation also assist the educational
success of students and schools belonging to other minorities (e.g., national minorities or
bilinguals), as well as the „mainstream” monolingual Hungarian students.
Our research project is conducted in four years, and one of its most important goals is to
create and strengthen the educational approach of language conscious school, and to carry
out further studies, and to develop methodology and teaching materials based on our findings.
On the one hand, this involves highlighting the importance and the role of language
knowledge, language-related knowledge and knowledge about language (especially
knowledge on mother tongue, second language, foreign language, metalanguage and language
use diversity which are critically redefined in the project) in the various processes of
education, learning, and cognition, and on the other hand, exploring the scientific results and
ways of methodology that are based on our knowledge of language, language use and
language-related knowledge, and making them accessible to raise the success of teaching and
learning.
This is a prerequisite for the bilingual education model of the Deaf, and it can aid any kind of
educational institution in the effective education of L1 and L2 (first language and second
language) based on the diverse linguistic resources of the children. Another direct goal of our
research is to develop a bilingual education model for the Deaf, to develop its content and
methodology, so that it provides equal opportunity for deaf children in their cognitive, social
and educational development. Our goal is to introduce and test this developed methodology
in a model institute. For this purpose we plan to create and develop ways of assessment and
educational aids for the Deaf that correspond to this new methodological approach, which
may be useful for both deaf and hearing students (such as a sign language student’s
dictionary, a dictionary of the terminology of school education, e-learning aids and aids for
visual reading, a system that analyses classroom interaction, etc.).
Another goal is to develop a bilingual program and a complex methodology based on these
educational aids and language conscious approach, which helps the education of bilingual
Roma children, making chance from disadvantage. We would also like to introduce this
program in a model classroom.
The most important working base of the Languag-E-Chance research group is to create a
study group that builds on multidisciplinar, theoretical and practical knowledge, and the
mutual involvement of the concerned as partners as well. In this way, apart from our general
goals, we also want to strengthen the members of this study group, especially the concerned
Deaf and Roma participants and through them their communities in their individual research,
education, learning, in increasing their chance for social mobility, and to put an end to their
social inferiority.
In accordance with this we plan to further develop a comprehensive information centre and
platform called EDU-Language-Storage, which would include the following: wide range of
basic information about the above mentioned topics, tools, aids and methods for education
and learning, and it would also serve as a virtual meeting point, and as such, gives an
opportunity for the different participants of education to bond and form contacts and relations
within the field.