Main R&D areas

2. Research and development

The Department of Foreign Languages concentrates on two large research areas. The first area is the linguistic research – pragmatics, translation, lexicology and sociolinguistics. The second important area is the teaching methodology for English for Specific Purposes. Thus, the mentioned research fields influence significantly the pedagogical activities, which are closely connected with the research areas.

Linguistic research is especially represented by work of doc. PhDr. Milena Krhutová, Ph.D at the Department of Foreign Languages. Her long-standing research activities in the field of English language with respect to pragmatics, sociolinguistics, linguistic instruments and their application to the education in electrical engineering resulted in the publication of her own professional book Parameters of Professional Discourse / English for Electrical Engineering.

Research in the field of lexicology and lexical systems has been peformed by PhDr. Milan Smutný, Ph.D for a long period of time. One of the linguistic problems he devotes to in his articles within the scientific community is, for example, the relationship between Conceptual Structure and Semantic Form.

Mgr. Miroslav Kotásek, Ph.D. loosely continues in research in the field of literary science. In his articles, he concentrates on specifics and distinctions between scientific and literary texts and their simultaneous interconnection in science fiction literature.

Doc. PhDr. Milena Krhutová, Ph.D., whose long-term effort led to successful accreditation of the philological programme English in Electrical Engineering and Informatics, made the most significant contribution to the teaching methodology for English for Specific Purposes.  Research work of PhDr. Ludmila Neuwirthová, Ph.D., who was a pioneer in the field of standardization of foreign language education at technical universities, was also very helpful.

Mgr. Ing. Eva Ellederová, Ph.D. carried out design-based research of an English for specific purposes coursebook at the Department of Foreign Languages. The twofold yield of her design-based research resulted in the coursebook for the subject English for IT and design principles that contribute to the development of theories of English for specific purposes coursebooks design. Currently, she is doing research on information technology students’ spoken language and speaking skills.

Some other colleagues dedicate themselves to research on companies' needs in the field of language education, implementation of ICT in teaching, etc.