Department of languages and education

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In the 1951-1952 academic year, after Kaunas University was reorganised into two independent higher education institutions – the Kaunas Institute of Medicine and the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute – the Department of Russian and Foreign Languages was established at the Kaunas Medical Institute (KMI), which in 1959 was named the Department of Languages. In December 2002, the Senate of Kaunas Medical University (KMU) approved the proposal to call the department the Department of Languages and Education, because since 1999 pedagogy subjects have begun to be taught in the department. In 2003 KMU Lecturers‘ Educational Competence Centre (DEKC) was established at the base of the department, which in 2015 became a department of the University.

The equivalent department of the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy (LVA) was called the Department of Russian-Latin, Foreign Languages, Languages. In 2010, after the merger of the Kaunas Medical University and the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy, the staff of both higher education institutions merged into the Department of Languages and Education of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU).

Heads of Departments

The first head of the newly established department at KMI was Mr. Lect. Aleksandra Sergejeva, who headed this department until mid-1958. For a very short time, the position of Head of this Department was held by Mr. Lect. Antanas Šupys. From the fall of 1958 to the summer of 1985, the Department of Languages was headed by Assoc. Prof. Vytautas Nečiūnas, one of the most famous of standardisers of Lithuanian medical language and terminology of the second half of the 20th century. In 1985-1995 the Department of Languages was headed by Doctor of Humanities Associate Professor Jonas Bajoras. 1995-2002 the Department of Languages was headed by Lecturer (Senior Lecturer) Elena Gražina Molytė.

The LVA Department of Languages was headed by: Antonina Četverikova, the first LVA language lecturer (1953–1956), Juozas Pavilonis (1956–1962), Jonas Raudonius (1962–1968); Egidija Neverauskienė (1968–1986); Birutė Starkšienė (1986–1994) was awarded the Order of Academic Palms of the French Republic and the Officer‘s Cross of the French National Order of Merit; Vida Janušaitienė (1994–2010).

In 2022-2021 The Department of Languages and Education was headed by prof. Raimonda Brunevičiūtė.

The lecturers of the department are members of EERA (European Educational Research Association), Classics Association (Societas Classica), Lithuanian Association of Language Pedagogues (LKPA), Applied Linguistics and Lithuanian Association of French Language Teachers and Lecturers.

Mission

The mission of the Department of Languages and Education is to develop the humanitarian competence of doctors. The department is one of the departments of the University that implements university humanitarian and social studies.

Compulsory subjects: “Introduction to Studies” and the module “Professional Language”, consisting of professional terminology in basics of Latin, professional foreign languages (English, German, French, Russian), language culture and specialty language subjects.

Optional subjects: “Second Foreign (French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Danish) Language”, “Translation of Medical Literature” (English), “Fundamentals of Russian Medical Terminology”, “Scientific Style”, “Introduction to the Science of Education”. Latin and Lithuanian languages are taught in English to international students.

Doctoral students are taught an optional subject – “Theory and Practice of Education”.

Main directions of research:

Theoretical – the search for possibilities of combining linguistic and educational research methodologies, determining the effectiveness of socialisation of studies in the field of biomedical sciences.

Practical:

Application of pedagogy and philology theories in creating and adapting performance research instruments;
Combining linguistic and educational research methodologies, studying the effectiveness of the socialisation results of biomedical studies.

The scientific topic of the department is “Investigation of the effectiveness of socialisation of university studies in the field of specialised biomedical sciences”. Work performance deadlines: 01/01/2017 – 12/31/2021.

The purpose of the research is to determine the effectiveness of socialisation of biomedical studies based on the methodology of philology and educational science, by studying the achieved results according to the intended tasks:

Conduct research on the results of the development of general and special abilities.
Conduct research on the results of the development of communication and cooperation competences.
Conduct research on the results of application of communication areas, forms, and techniques.
Conduct research on the results of general and professional values education.

The expected result is a prepared methodology for determining and improving the effectiveness of the socialisation of biomedical sciences studies; developed tools/techniques and developed and tested educational methods/techniques that condition the effectiveness of socialisation of biomedical sciences studies.

The department cooperates with the Department of Languages of the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague, Hradec Králové, the Language Centre of Masaryk University of Brno, the Language Center of Ankara University, the Department of Didactics and Educational Organisation of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences of the University of Valencia, Spain, and the Foreign Language Centre of Vilnius College.

Department of Languages and Education

Assoc. Prof. Silvija Rakutiene

Head of the Department of Languages and Education

+370 37 330 352 silvija.rakutiene@lsmu.lt

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