Abstract:

Teaching orthography in Hungarian minority primary schools in Slovakia is essentially approached with a mosaic perspective. This approach, based on the subject-pedagogical literature, can be considered an accepted perspective; its point is that knowledge of orthography is connected to the individual linguistic levels. Research shows that the status of Hungarian orthography is unambiguous for those in a minority situation as well: Hungarian language schools follow the rules of socially recognized Hungarian orthography, they emphasize the authority of the Hungarian orthographic norm. However, in order to increase social acceptance, it would be necessary for the specifically designated dictionaries and orthographic publications of the homeland to include in their corpora the words and phrases used by Hungarians outside the border, since the regulation of their spelling would also be necessary.

In the introductory part of the study I briefly introduce the Hungarian minority educational system in Slovakia, I explain the place of orthography in the Hungarian mother tongue education in Slovakia, and I discuss the applied approaches and methodologies. In the following part I introduce the curricular regulations concerning orthography in Slovakia focusing on the Hungarian language and literature subject in the base (standard) curriculum. After this I summarize the aims of teaching orthography after which I touch upon the requirements of the subject. The system of requirements of the subject is not consistent, since the knowledge to be acquired does not correlate with the expected application of skills. In the last chapter of the paper I mention the single orthography competition of Hungarian minority schools in Slovakia, the Simonyi Zsigmond Kárpát-medencei helyesírási verseny [Zsigmond Simonyi Carpathian Basin Orthography competition], which does not only have the function of nurturing talents, but also it preserves culture, since in the recent years personal and professional relationships have developed because of it; friendships have formed between the Hungarian teachers and students and those from outside the border. In this chapter I briefly present the history of the competition, its pedagogical goal and mission, and finally I write about the eponym of the competition, Zsigmond Simonyi.

Keywords:

Orthography, primary schools, Hungarian minority educational system, Zsigmond Simonyi Carpathian Basin Orthography competition.