Teaching pronunciation to learners of Hungarian as a foreign language

This thesis reports on a survey that has been done among learners and teachers of Hungarian as a foreign language. Hungarian as foreign language learners and teachers were questioned about the phonology, sound system and pronunciation (including the suprasegmental-features) of the Hungarian language. The goal of the survey was to detect which phonological features are the most challenging for Hungarian as foreign language learners. Most lectures and classes focus on grammar because of a lack of time, old language laboratories and grammar-based teaching tradition, which indicates that the pronunciation of the language learners is usually incorrect. During lectures some amount of phonological knowledge and pronunciation practice is definitely needed, so the language teacher has to be aware of what features to teach and concentrate on. Mother tongue should be considered in the case of different language learners. The most challenging feature has been considered to differentiate those vowels which are pronounced at the same place, as a result the most energy and time are needed to be dedicated for this issue, and the language teachers need to be well qualified. The syllabus of the different textbooks and workbooks are also important. If the language learner and language teacher did not have a systematic collection of exercises which can accelerate teaching methods and the necessary time then there would be incorrect acquisition.