Study programmes

The programme aims to equip its graduates with excellent command of the English language and its comprehensive description, as well as with skills needed for working with English and language data. The programme enables the graduates of the BA programmes in English-American Studies to focus on the study of English linguistics in a systematic way and prepares them for both the doctoral study and academic career in the field, as well as for non-academic professions.
This is a primarily academic programme whose graduates, given the position of the English language in today's world and using the acquired skills and abilities, find employment also outside the academic sphere, in professions not only requiring the ability to work with language and texts directly, but also in the fields of language policy and education, as well as in technological fields focused on language processing.
The programme is unique in its focus on the preparation of high-quality applicants for PhD studies in English linguistics. Compared to the Anglophone Literatures and Cultures programme, it differs in its focus on the linguistic description of English; compared to the General Linguistics programme, it differs in its concentration on one specific language and on the English-American approach to linguistics. Compared to the English-language programmes offered by the Faculty of Education, Charles University, it differs in its academic orientation.
The programme rests on the following core principles 1) the systematic relatedness of theoretical disciplines (including corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, structural linguistics, historical linguistics, discourse analysis, and applied linguistics, incl. language acquisition and psycholinguistics); 2) systematic relatedness of student education in linguistic theory with permanent emphasis on their high levels of language proficiency; and finally 3) the systematic relatedness of synchronic and diachronic study of English.
The programme consists of three complementary components: theoretical linguistic description, applied linguistic (didactic and methodological) preparation, and the development of language skills. The theoretical description comprises the phonetics and phonology of English, core grammar disciplines (morphology and syntax), as well as the lexical level (lexicology), introduction to the textual and discourse analyses (stylistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis), and historical linguistics focusing on the development of English in functional, structural and philological contexts. Special attention is paid to the contrastive study of English as opposed to Czech. Subjects concerned with didactics and the methodology of English language teaching acquaint students with the basic principles of teaching and foreign language acquisition. The practical language instruction focuses on the graduate’s mastering the principles of academic writing and the routine skills of translation from and to English.
The programme equips its graduates with comprehensive knowledge and skills to be applied in all areas which require a thorough command of English as well as knowledge of synchronous and diachronic English linguistics and the respective methodologies and where this knowledge and skills lead to the efficient use of modern technologies efficiently for the purposes of processing and interpreting data, as well as looking for new solutions to problems in a creative and efficient way.