The benefits of János arany’s ballads for the teaching of Hungarian language and literature: from reading to teaching linguistic diversity

Abstract

Although the name of the subject ’Hungarian language and literature’ suggests that the teaching of these two subjects is integrated, the truth is that this rarely happens in everyday practice. This seems odd because all texts carry the potential of teaching linguistic knowledge and principles. The reverse of this statement is also true: Hungarian linguistics is not independent of literature, since the style of texts, the language of literary works and units of meaning are also grammatical/ linguistic categories. Therefore, integrating grammar into literature, or at least avoiding the sharp separation of the two, seems appropriate. Beyond the theoretical aspects I would like to illustrate this in my study through a variety of exercises concerning János Arany's ballads.