Institute of Foreign Languages

Teaching Profile

The Institute of Foreign Languages provides compulsory and optional language courses for students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Courses in Bachelor’s and Master’s Study Programme are focused on general language, basic technical terminology and communicative skills. Courses within doctoral study programme are focused on languages for specific purposes and terminology according to the given specialisation. Special attention is given to oral delivery and written form of reports, presentations, etc.

The Institute also provides compulsory and optional language courses for students of the Faculty of Business and Management. Bachelor’s Study Programme includes compulsory courses of professional language aimed at economic and business terminology in students’ first foreign language. Courses in Master Study Programme are focused on general language skills in the second foreign language.

Considering the growing interest in foreign languages, the Institute offers a wide range of optional courses and courses within the Lifelong Learning, such as conversational and general language courses (Russian, German, Spanish) and specialised courses (e.g. Financial English, FCE preparatory course…).

Great attention is paid to new technologies used in the language teaching (CALL, blended learning, development of interactive teaching/learning materials, computer lab, multimedia classrooms etc.).

Scientific Profile

The staff is actively involved in projects and grants. Their results are being applied in courses in order to improve language education. Scientific activities are closely connected with methodology and the areas of teaching languages for specific purposes. Projects deal with the areas of applied linguistics, such as the aspects of teaching languages for specific purposes (e.g. academic, occupational), computer assisted language learning, methodology, blended learning, e-learning, etc. The institute is actively involved in projects connected with internationalization of higher education, and international projects (e.g. “DEUMA - Deutsch im Maschinenbau” that was awarded the European Language Prize LABEL 2003, “Effective Communication in Technical/Scientific Writing”, “Writing Professional English”).

The Institute organizes workshops, seminars and national, as well as international conferences - i.e. an international conference “Multimedia and E-Learning in Teaching Foreign Languages” in 2002, and an international conference “Languages for Specific Purposes in Higher Education - Searching for Common Solutions” in 2006.

The Institute cooperates with other BUT faculties and other Czech higher education institutions, various language teaching authorities, and within the research projects also with universities and institutions abroad.