Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Endre Abkarovits: Teaching the Englishness of English Gothic cathedral architecture

the United States, respectively, dedicating occasionally a chapter to history or, even more rarely, to the arts of these countries. There was, however, no course in the past at most universities and colleges in Hungary that would have covered the development of English culture other than literature. 'Culture' can be understood in various wider or narrower meanings, but neither a wider interpretation of English culture (that would include fields like housing, entertainment, education, hygiene, etc), nor its narrower application for 'high' arts was considered to be a necessary part of the studies of a future teacher of English in the past. Literature has always had an exceptionally prominent role in training students, partly for understandable reasons. Some of these were of a political nature. For a period (some twenty years), the written word was the only way - besides lectures and seminars of learning the English language in Eastern European countries. There were no travelling opportunities, no satellite TV, not even recorded audio material in the 50s and 60s. The written language had to compensate for the lack of these. Not even written versions of conversational English were used in teaching and learning, but literary works ranging from old English texts to contemporary science fiction were preferred. Right in the first year of our university studies we were expected to read short stories, novels of earlier centuries without being able to distinguish which elements of the vocabulary are still in use today, and which are extinct. Focusing only on one field of culture determined the way of thinking and the preferences of at least one generation. Though I do not deny the general importance of literature as carrier of the language, still, the disproportionate representation of this field of culture at the expense of all the others was and has been clear eversince. As a result of being trained only in literature and in no other field of culture teachers have usually felt safe eversince only if following the same old track. Someone who has never been trained in visual arts can volunteer to start teaching it only with the help of a lot of autodidactic training and personal interests and motivation in these fields. For decades only a few exceptional personalities at universities were known to discuss also the music, fine arts, architecture, theatre, etc of the age whose literature they were lecturing on. It is only for a decade or so that more and more tentative steps have been taken at several universities and colleges and new courses have emerged with the aim of introducing students to various fields of English culture (especially arts), even if with the help of a non-specialist. These courses are, however, very often restricted to a certain period or some peripherial phenomenon, depending on the personal interest of the tutor and not the usefulness of the subject for the students. Still, especially because of their usually elective nature, these courses attract many students, who often 44