Onomastic knowledge in Textbooks on Hungarian Grammar for secondary schools: possibilities of redesigning in the light of the draft version of the National Curriculum

Abstract

Onomastic knowledge in Textbooks on Hungarian Grammar for secondary schools: possibilities of redesigning in the light of the draft version of the National Curriculum

The insufficiencies of pupils’ onomastic knowledge at several levels of public education have been continually reported in Hungarian articles on Onomastics. In the current process of redesigning the National Core Curriculum, it is time to review why the onomastic exercises in the present textbooks on Hungarian Grammar prove to be inefficient, and what opportunities the draft of the National Core Curriculum may provide to improve onomastic knowledge. The paper first discusses the problems of teaching Onomastics in accordance with the present National Core Curriculum. The second part of the paper presents the results of a survey on onomastic knowledge (the types and rates of the tasks) in the latest textbooks on Hungarian Grammar for grades 5 to 12. The paper also attempts to define the types of tasks, such as onomastic tasks, tasks for widening onomastic knowledge and tasks for widening knowledge on proper names. Finally, the paper explores new possibilities in the draft for moving forward.