The issue of the Romanian language skills of Hungarians is constantly in the public discourse; the statement that young Hungarians do not want to learn Romanian is often made by some members of the Romanian and Hungarian political and professional elites. In addition, the perceived or real lack of knowledge of the Romanian language among Hungarians is presented as an obstacle to integration and social and economic mobility in both Romanian and Hungarian discourse. The aim of the research is to explore the attitudes and social discourses related to Romanian language learning and teaching. The research examines the problem from the perspective of three stakeholders and target groups and seeks answers to the following questions:
- The language skills of secondary school students and their attitudes towards Romanian (questionnaire survey)
- Hungarian secondary school students’ attitudes towards Romanian language and learning Romanian
- What are the factors that influence their knowledge of Romanian
- Romanian language and literature teachers’ narratives and ideologies related to Romanian language and Romanian language teaching (questionnaire, focus group)
- How do teachers define the importance of Romanian language skills?
- How do the objectives set by teachers and teaching practice relate to this?
- Political and professional elites’ narratives on Romanian language skills and Romanian language education (interviews and analysis of media and academic discourse)