History of the Department

Since the time of the Main College of Horticulture, at all stages of reorganization of the educational establishment, foreign languages have been playing an important role in training specialists for agriculture. In 1921-1928 a specialized course of Foreign Agricultural Literature was introduced. With renaming the College of Horticulture  into the Institute students began to study German, English and optionally French. It was required for post-graduate students to have a good command of German and English.

The department of foreign languages was created in 1950. The first head of the department was A.I. Vasylenko, senior laboratory assistant was W.Ye. Stetsenko who later became associate professor of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. In 1973 – 1980 the department was headed by O.M. Kobzhev, graduate of Kyiv Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, at present  – candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, head of the department of foreign languages at Sumy National Agrarian University.During 19 years from 1980 to 1999 the department was headed by senior lecturer M.Yu. Zamakhovska. The staff of the department was awarded with merit certificates for educational work and after-class activities and was entered on the university board of honour.

Students of the University of California Don Beene, Mark Rose and a post-graduate student Leslie Patton studied Russian at the department in 1990-ies. During 2002 – 2003 the representative of Peace Corps Oliver McArdle taught English, in 2003 – 2004 weekly meetings of English speaking club were run by a volunteer of the Peace Corps Vanessa Vilalve. In 2006 – 2007 a representative of the German program “Apollo” Stefan Klose worked at the department. These activities motivated students to study foreign languages, encouraged them to participate in subject contests, competitions, conferences.

Devoted, years-long work of A.V. Klymiuk, T.H. Sukhomeilo, Zh.A. Kovalska,  M.O. Heiko, H.K. Rudiuk, H.M. Polishchuk, L.L. Manalaki, M.F. Kobzheva, M.A. Belinska, O.M. Chaikovska, O.W. Melnyk and others contributed to the department achievements.

One of the distinctive features of the department today is the combination of experience of the older generation and enthusiasm of young teachers that ensures successful accomplishment of the tasks to be solved.

Many times the students of the university won Petro Yatsyk International Contest in Ukrainian Language and the International Contest in Language and Literature named after Taras Shevchenko among schoolchildren and students.

Four teachers of the department defended dissertations for the degree of the Candidate of Philological Sciences (Yu.I.Fernos, S.B. Liubarskyi, Ya.V. Bechko, O.B. Vasylyk) and five teachers  – for the degree of the Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences (N.K. Rudiuk, N.O. Komisarenko, L.V. Movchan, S.P. Karychkovska, O.W. Lazariev). Associate professor Ya.W. Bechko is the author and S.P. Karychkovska  – the co-author of scientific monographs. Three text-books written by the lecturers are recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science.

The Centre for Business Foreign Language headed by associate professor N.O. Komisarenko was created to offer consultant and educational services, translation, preparation of documents and writing letters in foreign languages.

Organizational and educational work at the department is dedicated to observing Shevchenko Days, the Day of Ukrainian Written Language, the International Day of Native Language, familiarizing students with the life of prominent Ukrainians, history and culture of English, German and French speaking countries. Teachers of the department H.V. Melnyk, Yu.I. Fernos, S.V. Karychkovska, I.I. Chuchmii, Ya.V. Bechko take an active part in organizational and educational work. Interesting events uniting both educational and vocational-oriented aims are the meetings of the teachers and students who had practical training abroad with  schoolchildren of the town and district. They are held annually by the group of teachers of English language under the guidance of associate  professor N.O. Komisarenko.

Members of the staff Ya.V. Bechko, O.O. Oliinyk, I.O. Kravchuk, V.O. Kobylianska, H.V. Melnyk, O.V. Lazarev, M.V. Paievska and others are engaged in reviewing and translating descriptions of the standards for professional knowledge and skills of graduates, curricula and programs, diploma papers, translating scientific articles and their abstracts, providing interpretation during scientific conferences, seminars and round table discussions.

Contemporary design and comfort of the class-rooms, technical equipment, textbooks, study-guides and dictionary collection numbering more than 2 thousand copies and what is of primary importance, a highly qualified and hard-working teaching staff, ensure a proper level of teaching and training of future specialists for agriculture.