Pages from a story-book: An account of a british-hungarian project of cultural studies

The article gives an account of a British Council project on the area of teaching Cultural Studies, which has been going on for four years in Hungary. It is a complex project of teaching culture, literature and language in an integrated way and aims to introduce new methods especially in language teaching at secondary schools. The frame of the article is the chronological order that covers the period from 1996 up to the present days. It shows the different stages from the beginnings, which go back to a British Council summer course for teachers at Lake Balaton. The next period includes the teachers’ effort to try out the new methods at schools and disseminate it among colleagues at workshops and presentations. At present the group is involved in material writing. The article gives a short practical example of teaching literary pieces from cultural aspects. The novelty of the project and its impact on Hungarian ELT is a key issue, which is also outlined. Besides methodological and pedagogical sides of the project, the psychological factors of teacher development and that of a closely co-operative work are also examined. The aim of the article is to prove that, on the basis of the Hungarian example, similar projects could be carried out in any place of the world where foreign languages are taught