Chapter 10. Speech and language assessment of multilingual children in Hungary

Abstract

For over 100 years, Hungary has consisted of predominantly Hungarian-speaking individuals with 98.9% claiming Hungarian as their native language in 2001. On the latest census in 2011, less than 7% of people living in Hungary identified themselves as belonging to a minority ethnic group. However, in recent years, Hungary has experienced an increase in immigrants whose home language is other than Hungarian. The educational system and speech-language pathology practices have not caught up with the reality of having non-Hungarian-speaking immigrants entering public schools. In this paper, we review the literature on the growing issue of how Hungarian society and its educational system are grappling with accommodating immigrants whose home language may be other than Hungarian.