Changing Lives, Changing Languages: Societal Impact on Language Teaching

1989 was a dividing line in the history of Central & Eastern European countries. Not only political systems were re-organized, but also social and cultural relations had to be revisited. It is valid to education as well because it welcomed new structures, subjects and philosophies, very often in new educational environments. In Hungary, language education was in a special situation: due to the changing social demands it had to face new challenges with the introduction of foreign languages not widely taught up to this time. The three pillars of the study are the analysis of the shift from a socialist regime into capitalism and its reflection in language education, the description of the appearance of different languages in public and higher education, and the introduction of new methods and synergies applied in the new era of FLT (foreign language teaching). Illustrations of present results are provided from the two far ends of education, namely, pre-school education and kindergarten teacher-training.Key words: change, educational challenges, foreign language teaching (FLT), good practices, teacher-trainin