The Department of Theory, Practice and Translation of English was founded in 2000. Since the day it was founded until 2010, the Head of the Department and its permanent inspirer remained the candidate of philological sciences, associate professor Yuriy Ivanovych Vysochynsky.
In different times the department was headed by the doctors of philology, professors Alla Kalyta and Nina Ishchenko. Since November 2020, the head of the department is Doctor of Philology, Professor Larysa Taranenko. Deputy Head of the Department is Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Zoia Kornieva.
The Department employs 40 lecturers, including 7 professors (6 Doctors of Science and 1 PhD); 11 Associate Professors, PhDs; 3 senior lecturers, PhDs; 9 senior lecturers and 10 lecturers.
The Department of Theory, Practice and Translation of English administers the students’ graduation. It trains bachelors and masters in philology under the study programme 035.041 “Germanic languages and literatures (including translation), primary – English”, offering the learners full-time and extramural/by correspondence forms of studies. The number of undergraduates studying at the Department amounts to 306 full-time students, 166 of them being trained on a contractual basis, while 102 students study by correspondence. Since 2016 the Department has been running a programme for the post-graduate students of the third academic level, namely “Doctor of Philosophy” specialising in Philology. Currently at the third level of education there are 11 full-time PhD students.
One of the priority directions of the department is developing strong quality assurance systems of education that provide students with a multi-level education that meets the standards of the up-to-date educational, professional and scientific programmes adapted both to the students’ needs and market demands. The department builds up the student-oriented approach to the educational process as well as “lecturer – student” relationships with a focus on developing the learners’ professional competences and providing them with opportunities for their creative self-realisation, scientific inquiry, international cooperation and mobility.
Scientific and educational potential of the Department is enhanced by encouraging its staff to take part in scientific work with a specific focus on the research areas of the Department. Thus, over the last 5 years, 3 Doctoral and 11 Candidate’s Theses have been defended by the PhD students and lecturers of the Department.
The academic staff and students participate in a number of scientific and research activities initiated by the Faculty, as well as in various international scientific programmes and projects. The Department holds annual International Scientific Research-to-Practice Conferences and Seminars, All-Ukrainian Students’ Conferences, where scientists from Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia and other countries are active participants. The Department also aims at implementing new formats of conferences and other scientific events, which serves to increase the level of both staff and students’ scientific engagement.
Moreover, the scientific work at the Department focuses on publishing manuscripts and articles in the professional journals of Ukraine and in the journals indexed by the international databases Scopus and Web of Science, as well as co-authored with foreign scholars, thus enhancing collaboration between domestic and foreign educational establishments.
Students and lecturers of the Department take an active part in the ERASMUS+ mobility programme with an aim of education and scientific exchange. Educational researchers regularly do internships in foreign higher education institutions (Great Britain, Spain, Poland, the Kingdom of Belgium, France, etc.). The Department continues to work on expanding the cooperation with the universities that participate in ERASMUS+ academic mobility programme, as well as on getting new partners among the universities of European countries. In addition, the cooperation has been prolonged with such foreign higher education institutions as Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), Kütahya Dumlupınar University (Turkey), Vilniaus universitetas (Lithuania). The agreement of cooperation and students’ exchange was signed with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (the Kingdom of Belgium).
The staff of the Department also cooperate with various foreign organizations, operating in Ukraine, e.g.: MASHAV (Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs); National ERASMUS+ office in Ukraine (NEO in Ukraine) and Ukraine-Japan Centre of National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (UAJC).
Lecturers of the Department are also the members of various international and All-Ukrainian scientific organizations such as TESOL Ukraine (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), BESIG (Business English Scientific Interest Group), Ukrainian division of IATEFL (Supported by British Council Ukraine), Societas Linguistica Europaea, Kyiv Phonetic School, All-Ukrainian non-governmental organization “Ukrainian association of cognitive linguistics and poetics (UACLIP), etc.
