Dr. Judit Kovács, retired associate professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, was congratulated by her colleagues on her 80th birthday. Judit was an active lecturer at our faculty for 19 years, but she continued to participate in the educational life of the faculty even after her retirement. She also established the Judit Kovács Scholarship, which is open to students who write their thesis on bilingualism and complete their long-term internship at a bilingual school or kindergarten.
Dr. Judit Kovács obtained her secondary school teaching degree in English language and literature in 1976. In 1999, she obtained a Master of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Young Learners from the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). In 2005, she received her doctorate from the Doctoral School of Linguistics at the University of Pécs in the Applied Linguistics Doctoral Program. The title of her PhD thesis is: Hungarian-English bilingual primary school programs in our public education system. Since 2005, she has been participating in doctoral procedures as a consultant and preliminary examiner.
She began her career in 1970 as a secondary school teacher at Leővey Klára Grammar School in Budapest. She has been working in teacher training for 30 years. From 1989 to 1992, she worked as a trainee teacher and head teacher at the ELTE Trefort (formerly Ságvári) Training School in Budapest. From 1992 to 1998, she was an assistant professor at the Budapest Teacher Training College, and since 1998, he has been working as an associate professor at our institution. She teaches Subject Pedagogy I-IV. (Early Language Pedagogy), English Children's Literature, British Civilization, School Practice, and Theory and Practice of Bilingualism at our faculty.
Since 1995, she has been a National Public Education Expert, and from 1999 to 2007, she was vice president of the Foreign Language Section of the Association of Nursery and Teacher Trainers (ÓTE). Since 2001, she has been a National Examination Expert. Since 2007, she has been president of the Foreign Language Section of the Association of Nursery and Teacher Trainers (ÓTE) Foreign Language Section, and since 2008, she has been a member of the board of the Association for Bilingual Schools (KIE), chair of the Higher Education and Science Section and the Kindergarten Section, and since 2009, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Judit Kovács regularly published scientific articles and books on bilingualism and early childhood language education. She was a member of the faculty's Scientific Committee. As a training manager, she developed the launch document for the specialized continuing education program English Language in Kindergarten. As a curriculum developer, she is credited with compiling the teaching materials "Good Practice" in Foreign Language Teaching for Primary School Children, a collection of lesson plans for language teaching in lower grades, and "Good Practice" in Foreign Language Development for Preschool Children.
Since 2000, large numbers of her students have entered the Best Teacher of the Year competition jointly organized by ELTE Practice School and our institution, and they usually achieve podium positions. In 2010, one of her students won first place. Her students also regularly participate in the National Scientific Student Conferences. Dr. Judit Kovács received certificates of recognition in 2007 and 2009 for preparing them for these conferences.
Dr. Judit Kovács retired in 2011, but she is still an active lecturer at our faculty.
We wish her a happy birthday!
