The
challenges and experiences of multicultural education in the context of English
for Social Sciences at the Corvinus University of Budapest
Corvinus
University of Budapest, Centre for Education and Social Sciences in Foreign
Language, Hungary
Abstract:
English for Economics has had a traditional place at the
Corvinus University of Budapest for many decades. The recent changes in the
Hungarian higher education (EU membership, Bologna Declaration, Erasmus,
Socrates programmes, the Common European Framework) have had big influences on
our traditional educational profiles and we had to adapt to the new challenges.
Nowadays our university degree programmes stress both the theoretical and practical knowledge of the given discipline, the ability to apply this knowledge and a good intercultural communication in foreign languages. These endeavours
usually meet with the desire of our foreign and Hungarian students.
The best fields for the improvement of intercultural and language competences
are the Language/English for Special Purposes (LSP/ESP) courses where the
professional and language skills are given special emphasis in our foreign
language programmes.
English for Social Sciences is one of our research projects, which aim
to provide the students with authentic
professional materials and tasks (content-, task-based language teaching); to
improve learner autonomy in their
scientific context; and to develop multicultural
awareness.
In my presentation I introduce my practical experiences
then discuss the future possibilities of ESP courses, which are good fields of
education to develop the cosmopolitan feeling of our students.
Key words: theoretical and practical
knowledge; ability; intercultural and language competences, authenticity;
learner autonomy; multicultural awareness; cosmopolitan feeling.