History of the Department

Historie katedry

The English Department was established in 1988 as a section of the Department of Philology at the College of Education, České Budějovice, with the aim to train a small group of secondary teachers of English. In addition, the staff were responsible for teaching English as a common core subject. Revolutionary changes of the political system in 1989 were followed by rapid expansion which brought the Department higher status and widened its scope of teaching. In 1991-94 it participated in a joint TEMPUS project, and until 1999 the Department activities were coordinated by the British Council. Both types of international cooperation helped us to enhance the quality of teaching and to substantially improve the Department's material equipment. In 2000 the Department was authorized to offer three-year bachelor programmes of business English (in combination with German or French).

Our main focus is a five-year magister programme for teachers of English at senior level of basic school. No less important is our share in the magister programme for teachers at junior level of basic school.

Within further and life-long educational activities the Department has prepared a two-year requalification programme for graduate teachers of other subjects at both junior and senior levels of basic school. Last but not least with regard to the volume, are the Department's responsibilities for optional courses of English for non-majors offered in the common core curriculum.

Although the staff has long been subject to considerable fluctuation, the Department has set on building its professional standing . All young members pursue some kind of post-graduate research for their PhD diplomas, three teachers who aspire to a higher academic degree are about to complete their dissertations. They are regularly encouraged to present research papers and participate in international conferences. Some members of the Department have joined various professional societies (Circle of Modern Philologists; Association of Teachers of English in Czech Republic; International reading Association; Children's Literature Association; British Council).

The Department's research interests encompass contemporary English language, idiomatic expressions and neologisms; textual linguistics; syntactical study of functional sentence perspective; evolutionary changes in the English language; cross-cultural differences in vocabulary; specific problems of Czech users of English; gender reference with animal nouns; translatology; analysis of teacher's needs; analysis of classroom discourse; writing a textbook for learners at senior basic school level; reading and literacy; Gothic novel; Romantic features and symbols in 19th-century English literature; children's literature; major themes in American literature.