Linguistic discrimination in pedagogical evaluation. A study of teachers of Hungarian language and literature in Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary

There is a paucity of research on dialect awareness among teachers, particularly in Hungary. The aim of our research was to explore, and demonstrate the existence of linguistic discrimination. The research involved more than 550 Hungarian Language and Literature teachers and teacher trainees from Hungary (N = 216), Slovakia (N = 128), Romania (N = 108) and Ukraine (N = 50). Data were collected primarily through a technique similar to matched-guise tests, however, the method of the present research had some additional complexity. The pilot test (N = 50) and the large-scale research (N = 502) clearly supported the assumption that linguistic discrimination was widespread in pedagogical evaluation. Oral performances were recorded which varied in content, language variety and code/mode of language use. Oral performances produced in the standard variety and/or in the elaborated code of language use were favored. By contrast, oral productions in dialectal and restricted language—despite the fact that their content was correct—received unfavorable evaluation. Linguistic variability in oral productions with the same content resulted in as much as a full grade of difference in the mean of grades. The differences were statistically significant for each sample, hence the prevalence of linguistic discrimination is proved.