THE NECESSITY TO CHANGE THE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TAUGHT AS A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN SLOVAK SCHOOLS

Abstract

Currently, most Slovak elementary and secondary schools teach English as the first foreign language and German, French, Spanish, Italian, or Russian as the second foreign language. From the results of foreign language School leaving exams, we can see that the number of students learning English is growing, and their language proficiency is continuously improving. The problem appears with a second foreign language, with the opposite tendency. The language proficiency in a second foreign language has been decreasing for a long time. Based on the questionnaire survey results from the professional faculties of the University of Economics in Bratislava, we analyzed whether the length of time spent learning a second foreign language contributes to improving the achieved language proficiency. The results are presented in the article. Students of five professional faculties of the University of Economics in Bratislava participated in the survey. Based on the results, more than half of the students have been learning a second foreign language for seven to nine years and have reached a language level of Basic User according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The acquired language level is not sufficient, considering the length of teaching/learning, and it does not motivate students to communicate in the given foreign language to learn it more intensively.