Individual language management and language strategies of Hungarian students in Bratislava

Abstract

The paper focuses on the individual language management of Hungarian minority students from Southern Slovakia who migrated to study at university in the capital city of Slovakia, Bratislava. It presents language strategies of five students, based on their language biographies. Each student was interviewed three times during their first three years of study. The language problems of these students include maintaining their mother tongue and improving their skills in Slovak as well as balancing between the two languages in various spheres of life. Factors affecting the language use of the students are family, institutions, peer group and overcoming fear. The students deal with their everyday multilingualism according to several models, which can be described on the axis between Hungarian only to Slovak only, but the students mostly find themselves somewhere in between the two, depending on various spheres (family, university, jobs, peers).

Similarities and Differences in Linguistic Discrimination Between Slovak and Hungarian Teachers of Hungarian Language and Literature

“…This is the second highest number among Hungary's neighbouring states and makes Hungarians the largest minority ethnic group in Slovakia. However, the number is constantly decreasing, thus preserving the cultural and linguistic identity of ethnic Hungarians living in minority status is becoming more and more difficult (Sándorová -Vančo 2020;Satinská 2016).…”