Department of English Philology
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Research Interests
Cross-linguistic studies of English and Lithuanian
- Corpus-based cross-linguistic research
- Contrastive syntax and semantics (verb complementation, perception verbs, epistemic modality, semantics of locatives, the category of possesivity)
- Text and discourse analysis, communication theory
- Stylistic aspects of language (stylistic analysis of poetry, cognitive study of metaphors)
- Phonetic and phonological aspects of English and Lithuanian
History of English: Middle English texts
English Language Learning and Teaching
- Teaching English for specific purposes (ESP): academic English, English for professional purposes
- Second language acquisition: learner language
- Teaching writing
- Lannguage teacher education (reflective approach)
Contrastive rhetoric: genre analysis
Lexicography: terminology, ESP dictionaries
Translation of profesional texts
Culture studies:
- American civilisation
- British history and society
- Canadian culture
- Irish identity
During the last decade there have been the following PhD and Doctor Habilitatus theses defended:
1995—I. Šeškauskienė. Semantics of Some Spatial Prepositions in English and Lithuanian . Vilnius. PhD thesis.
2000—J. Macevičiūtė. The Beginnings of Language Loss in Discourse. A Study of American Lithuanian. PhD thesis defended in Southern California University, USA.
2002—R. Racevičiūtė. Metaphorical Motivation of English ahd Lithuanian Somatic Idioms. Vilnius, PhD thesis.
2002—A. Usonienė. On Syntax-Semantics Interface: Verbs of Perception in English and Lithuanian. Vilnius, Doctor Habilitatus thesis.
Several PhD theses are in progress:
N. Burneikaitė. Rhetorical Peculiarities of Student L1 and L2 Argumentative Writing.
B. Ryvitytė. Rhetorical Peculiarities of Academic Discourse.
Other research-related activities
N. Burneikaitė
- Member of the Panel of the English Language Experts and Teacher Certification Committee at the Ministry of Education, Republic of Lithuania
- Member of English Teachers' Accreditation Committee at the Ministry of education and Science, Republic of Lithuania
- Member of the organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Germanic, Romance and Baltic Linguistic Studies held 5-7 September 2002
Dr J. Grigaliūnienė
- Member of the Scientific Committee of the TNP in the Area of Languages 2 Project
- Co-ordinator of the BESIG Group (Business English Special Interest Group) of Lithuanian ATEFL (Association of Teachers of english as a Foreign Language)
- Head of expert group of university studies quality assessment, Centre for Quality Assessment of Studies at the Minstry of Education
- Member of the Organising Committee of the Conference The Role of Languages in the Process of European Integration held 26 September 2001
- Member of the editorial board for the publication of The Role of Languages in the Process of European Integration
- Member of the Organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Germanic, Romance and Baltic Linguistic Studies held 5-7 September 2002
A. Rėksnienė
- Member of the organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Canadian Studies Canadian Women held 6 October 2001
- Member of the Organising Committee of the 3rd International Conference on Canadian Studies Canadian Identities held October 2002
B. Ryvitytė
- ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) Co-ordinator, Faculty of Philology
- Member of the Organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Germanic, Romance and Baltic Linguistic Studies held 5-7 September 2002
- Member of the organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Canadian Studies Canadian Women held 6 October 2001
- Member of the organising Committee of the 3rd International Conference on Canadian Studies Canadian Identities held October 2002
Dr I. Šeškauskienė
- Member of the Faculty BA Programme Supervision Committee
- Member of the Faculty MA Programme Revision Group
- Member of the Faculty Scientific Board
- Member of expert group of university studies quality assesment, Lithuanian Centre of Quality Assessment at the Ministry of Education
- Member of the Organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Germanic, Romance and Baltic Linguistic Studies held 5-7 September 2002
Dr Habil. A. Usonienė
- Editorial board member of the Kalbotyra ( Linguistics ) journal, Vilnius University
- Co-ordinator of the Organising Committee of the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Germanic, Romance and Baltic Linguistic Studies held 5-7 September 2002
- International Co-operation/exchange within the framework of the SOCRATES Programme: a series of lectures on English Verb Complementation (University of Antwerp, Belgium), May 2001, May 2002
Members of the Department are active in international projects, societies and associations. During the last five years, the members of the Department have participated in the following international projects: Academic Writing, Education Management, British Studies in universities, Teaching English and the Internet . All of them were supported by the British Council. The Department memebers participate in the ESSE (European Society for the Study of English), International Association of Pragmatics, LAUTE (Association of University Teachers of English of Lithuania), LAKMIDA (Association of Teachers of English of Lithuania), LANAS (Lithuanian Association of North American Studies), Lithuanian-Irish Association, Lithuanian Canadian Association, Lithuanian-British Association.
International relations
The Department participates in the EU Socrates/Erasmus programme. There have been close relationships established with the Finnish universities of Turku and Joensu, Uppsala University in Sweden, University College Cork (Ireland), Amsterdam University (Belgium) etc.
The Department members have received a number of grants from the Swedish Institute, Open Society Fund Lithuania, Canadian Government etc. They closely co-operate with the British Council. Almost every year there is a Fulbright scholar and a number of teachers and scholars from European universities teaching at the Department.
Lecturers from European and American universities at the Department:
Professor Karin Aronsson , Linköping University, Sweden, 1995-1996, gave a course on bilingualism.
John Philips , USIA/USIS member, 1995-1996, gave a course on phonetics and phonology.
Laima Sruoginis , Fulbright scholar, poet and translator, 1995-1996. Translated a poetry book Lithuania: In her Own Words , Vilnius, 1997.
David Boe , Fulbright scholar, USA, linguist, 1997.
Lisa Helling , American Center, 1997-1998, a course in American Studies.
Barbara Hyde , British Council, 1997, English through Literature course.
Ellen Swihart , USA Embassy 1996-1997, a course in American literature.
Kerry Shawn Keys , Fulbright scholar, poet and translator, 1998-1999. Author of a number of poetry books and translator of Lithuanian poetry into English.
Dr. Keith Battarbee , Turku University, Finland, EU Socrates/Erasmus Programme, 2001, a course in sociolinguistics.
Dr Wendell Mayo , Fulbright scholar, Bowling Green University, Ohio, USA, 2001-2002, writer, author of several books about Lithuania, teacher of creative and academic writing.
Dr Cynthia Vakarelyiska , Fulbright scholar, Oregon, USA, 2002, linguist, a course in gender linguistics.
Professor Bernard Hickey , Lecce University, Italy, EU Socrates/Erasmus Programme, 2002, lectures on Irish Studies.
Dr John Hines , Cardiff University, Great Britain, EU Socrates/Erasmus Programme, 2003, lectures from old Germanic mythology, English medieval literature and language.
The Department has organized a number of international conferences:
1997— Irish Studies Conference
1997—Teaching Writing at University Level
1998—Germanic and Baltic Linguistic Studies and Translation
2000—Canadian Studies: (Re)Discovering Canada
2001—Canadian Women
2002—Canadian Identity
2002—2nd Conference on Contemporary Germanic and Baltic Linguistic Studies .
Universiteto 5,
LT – 01513 Vilnius
Tel./fax (+370 5) 268 7228
