Vilnius University
Kaunas Faculty of Humanities

HISTORY

In 1995 the Department of Russian Language and Literature was reorganised into the Department of Foreign Languages, Žana Lečickaja becoming the head of the office. The Department had lecturers who taught English and German to non-professionals. In 1996 the bachelor study programme of German and Russian Languages was established due to the rise of demand of translators and reporters. By the time the Department was headed by the assoc. prof. Danutė Balšaitytė. In 2001 a new study programme entitled English and Russian Languages was developed. Since 2007 the position of the head of the department is taken by the assoc. prof. Daiva Deltuvienė.

STUDIES

English and Russian language studies are new specialities in Vilnius University and Lithuania in general. The geopolitical situation of Lithuania, the integration of Western European structures, historically formed and rapidly developing economic and cultural ties with neighbouring Russia had a great impact on the demand of educated specialists, speaking both English and Russian. Studies of English and Russian languages are interdisciplinary studies of modern linguistics. The programme aims to prepare specialists that are capable of speaking fluent English and Russian. Moreover, graduates are capable of analysis, stylistic assessment, and editing texts of various styles and genres. Graduates are able to select and apply appropriate translation strategies, translate texts from English to Russian and vice versa, classify, analyse, construe and summarise the research data. The programme focuses on practical activity of future graduates in relation to further career options. The programme is developed to satisfy the needs of modern students to integrate successfully into the labor market after bachelor studies. In the course of time several generations of teachers, translators and lecturers have been prepared. A number of students continue their studies to acquire master’s degree in English linguistics.

SCIENTIFIC WORK

Research areas conducted by the Department are Language and Thought (language structures and its functional characteristics) and Information Systems (Information Technologies) in business and learning process (speech signal analysis, acoustic features of phonemes in related languages).

Researchers of the Department of Foreign Languages investigate rhetorical features in Russian and Lithuanian political discourse. They also take interest in cognitive text semantics. In scientific reports and articles etymological and semantic features of Russian and English texts are commented, and glottodidactic aspects of speech are analysed.

Since 2001, the Department organises international scientific conference entitled Man in the Space of Language, publishes a continuous collection of reviewed scientific articles. In 2006, an international student conference Languages and Cultures of the Baltic Region was organised.

DISSERTATIONS

In the year 2004 and 2005 dissertations by Lidija Kaukėnienė and Robertas Kudirka were defended. Currently the Department has four dissertations in the preparation process.

SCIENTISTS

The department is proud of prominent scientists that have worked or still works in the department, such as prof. Dr. (HP) Olegas Poliakovas, assoc. prof. Danutė Balšaitytė, assoc. prof. Žana Lečicka, assoc. prof. Daiva Deltuvienė, Dr. Ala Diomidova, Dr. Olegas Perovas.

CONFERENCES

Scientific conferences that are organised by the Department of Foreign Languages:

• International scientific conference Pragmatics, syntagmatics and language functions in 2000 (72 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Russia);
• International scientific conference Individual in language space organised since 2001( 54 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Russia). Since the organization of the first conference the number of participants have been increasing: 61 participant from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia and Belarus in 2002, 63 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and  Russia in 2003, 64 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Czech Republic in 2005, 138 participants from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey.

The Department also organises students’ conferences:

• International students’ conference Culture and languages of the Baltic States, first organized in 2006 (32 participants from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia);
• International students’ conference Culture and languages of the Baltic States 2009 (55 participants from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia).

STUDENTS’ PRACTICE

Students of English and Russian language programme practice at various Lithuanian translation agencies.

ALUMNI

The Department is proud of its graduates’ achievements. Lina Inčiūraitė is a lecturer at Lithuanian University of Agriculture, Asta Kondratavičienė is a translator at Balsan, Italy. Vilma Linkevičiūtė, Giedrė Stankevičiūtė, Giedrė Dubauskienė, Asta Katkevičienė are the members of the Department of Foreign Languages.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

International collaboration is realised by  participating in international students’ and academic staff’s exchange progammes. Recently the Department has signed three students’ and lecturers’ ERASMUS SOCRATES treaties with the University of Bologna (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Italy) in 2005, Holy Cross Academy, Kielce (Poland) and University of Warsaw (Uniwersytet Warszawski, Poland) in 2006. Following the regulations of the treaties, assoc. professor D. Balšaitytė visited Holy Cross Academy in 2006 and the University of Bologna in 2007. During her visits assoc. professor D. Balšaitytė delivered lectures, coordinated exchange studying programmes with corresponding departments’ supervisors, discussed upon perspectives of further cooperation. In 2006 a student from the University of Bologna took a course in English and Russian Philology at Kaunas Faculty of Humanities. During the same academic year students of English and Russian Philology programme studied at the University of Bologna.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

• Minsk State Linguistic University (Belarus)
• University of Bologna (Italy)
• Saint Cross Academy, Kielce (Poland)
• University of Latvia (Latvijas Universitāte, Latvia)
• Saint-Petersburg State University (Russia)