General information
The department of foreign languages was founded in 1949. At that time, the English language was the compulsory discipline for all majors. In the course of time, German, French and Latin have been included into the educational programs. Nowadays, foreign languages for specific purposes reflect the compulsory education aspect. General and advanced foreign language courses, foreign languages for academic as well as for business communication are nowadays selective disciplines and are highly demanded by the undergraduates and post-graduates. The courses of the second foreign language (French and German, especially) are sought-after by students of economic majors.
Teaching and academic resources
The foreign languages have the largest amount of the classroom study load among all the university disciplines and therefore they have very intensive syllabi. The communicative method and the interactive approach are fundamental to both class and extracurricular activities. The multilevel general foreign language and foreign language for specific purposes courses tailored to adults from prominent publishers are applied in the educational process as well as coursebooks and textbooks developed by the lecturers of our department. The ICT resources (online presentation and poster editors, distant learning platforms, testing websites, messengers, AR and VR applications, AI-based chatbots) are inevitable scaffolding in the blended learning mode and for creating efficient foreign language environment for the young adult learners.
The undergraduates actively participate in study groups, academic workshops and conferences of different levels, in educational and communication events held by the department staff and related to intercultural aspects, social problems and relevant issues of youth life.
Research directions
The department staff are highly qualified lecturers and academics with major in linguistics and profound command of two or three foreign languages. Linguistics and pedagogy are the main strands in the studies, articles and theses of the foreign language teachers of the department. The major scientific fields of the department are Optimization of teaching foreign languages to students by means of active learning methods and Innovative technologies and methods of vocational training of specialists-to-be at higher agricultural educational institutions. The permanent purpose is to build a learning environment which is encouraging enthusiasm and arousing interest in order to enhance the students’ actual foreign language skills and communicative competence through cooperative learning and to motivate the undergraduates to improve their command of foreign languages in lifelong pursuit of knowledge. The gained pedagogical experience, developed teaching strategies, designed aspects of learning environments, verified experiment results are published and presented by the department lecturers at scientific events of different levels and scale. There is also a significant amount of co-authorship of the department staff and researchers from diverse fields from Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University and national and foreign universities.
International Relations
The international relations of the department staff both in the scientific and in the academic spheres are well-founded and productive. The lecturers maintain international cooperation, enhance the study internalization and the university’s integration into the European education system. All the teachers are permanent members of international organisations (TESOL-Ukraine – Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages; IATEFL – International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language; DAAD – der Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service).
Senior lecturer Margaryta Vynogradova has been a referent and program coordinator within the association agreement between the university and FEFU – Fédération Échanges France Ukraine (Accord de coopération entre FEFU et TDATU) for more than 15 years.
The long-term cooperation with the association FLEFU (Français Langue Etrangère France Ukraine) – French as a foreign language France-Ukraine and with the association CPCU (Coopération Poitou Charentes Ukraine) – Poitou Charentes and Ukraine Cooperation has resulted in regular teacher and undergraduates exchange and further education at universities in France, annual classes for preparation the university undergraduates for passing exams in French and having successful interviews for study or internships as well as for summer jobs. Lots of grants have been won by the university students for trainings, internships and master study in France. Various vocational trainings and webinars from the representatives of French enterprises in economic, industry and hospitality spheres have been held for the English-speaking university students to motivate them to join the second foreign language (French) intensive classes and apply for grants from FEFU.
For the last five years, the cooperation with the Department Agriculture, Ecotrophology, and Landscape Development in Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (Germany) gave 10 bachelors from Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University the chance to obtain and accomplish the Food and Agribusiness program to obtain the Master of Science degree.
Development prospects
In the next 2 years, the staff expect to
– extend the international relations for research and further education,
– intensify the academic student exchange with the European universities,
– implement the designed extracurricular ESL and SFL projects for the University community,
– participate actively in grant applications being submitted by the present University’s research and innovation network,
– enlarge the department-related research activities in Linguistics studies,
– proceed with developing, designing and publishing student-oriented textbooks, online learning courses for languages for specific purposes, and communicative practice student’s books and guides for businessmen-to-be and promising academics.