Minimum Curriculum Requirements for Magister Programmes
in PHILOLOGY^*

1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

The term "Philology" encompasses a very broad range of specialist options. These often differ considerably from each other, both in terms of the course load and the number of courses included. They also differ in terms of the number of hours allocated to the practical study of the target languages (some philological programmes covering the study of two or three languages). Moreover, in the English, German and Romance (French) language and literature programmes, English, German or French respectively serves as a medium of communication (with majors /in the form of lectures, classes and seminars/ taught in the language of the specialist option), and the practical language instruction is provided at very advanced levels and in a slightly different manner than is the case, for example, for the Scandinavian languages in the Scandinavian programmes. In the case of the latter, students start learning the language of their specialist option at the elementary level, and basic courses are conducted in the Polish language. Given this difference, the minimum curriculum requirements distinguish between various specialist options within this field of study, dividing them into the following two groups:

Group A comprises specialist options where language instruction begins at a very advanced level (English, German, French, Russian) as well as ones such as the Classics or Slavic, Byelorussian, and Ukrainian Studies in which language instruction begins at the elementary level but may take a similar number of hours as that in the specialist options where language instruction is continued from a certain level of advancement;

Group B comprises the remaining philological programmes, i.e. those where language instruction begins at the elementary level and requires a much higher number of hours.

Given the division described above, the minimum curriculum requirements comprise respectively:

Group A : 1665 hours Group B : 1965 hours.

The total course load for Group A specialist options ranges between 2000 and 3000 hours, while that for Group B specialist options ranges between 2700 and 3900 hours. Magister programmes have a duration of 10 semesters.

The minimum curriculum requirements do not include courses required for philologists to obtain additional professional qualifications, e.g. those of a language teacher, translator, publisher, editor, etc. Courses for these qualifications are taken as optional in accordance with curriculum requirements defined in other documents.

2. PROFILE OF THE GRADUATE

The graduate possesses a good knowledge of general humanities, a general knowledge of literature, culture and history of the geographical area of the language chosen for his/her study programme as well as a general knowledge of linguistics. Moreover, the graduate is a specialist in terms of practical language skills and, as the holder of the title of magister filologii, a specialist in the literature of a given language, the culture of a given language area or linguistics, depending on the chosen academic specialisation. Philological programmes provide a background for graduates to obtain additional qualifications as required to work in the profession of teacher, translator, editor, organiser and promoter of the culture of a given language area, etc.

3. COURSE GROUPS AND COURSE LOAD:

	Group A	Group B
GENERAL COURSES	330 hours	330 hours
BASIC AND MAJOR COURSES	1335 hours	1635 hours
Total:	1665 hours	1965 hours

4. COURSES BY GROUP AND MINIMUM COURSE LOAD

1. GENERAL COURSES

Total (A and B)	330 hours
Elective (e.g. computer science, logic, natural sciences or fundamentals of intellectual property protection)	30 hours
History of Philosophy	60 hours
2nd Foreign Language	120 hours
Latin/Old Church Slavonic	60 hours
Physical Education	60 hours

2. BASIC AND MAJOR COURSES

	A: 1335 hours
	B: 1635 hours

Set of courses in literature:
Introduction to Literature Studies	30 hours
History of Literature	120 hours
Set of courses in culture:
Culture of the language area	60 hours
History of the language area	30 hours
Set of courses in linguistics:
Introduction to Linguistics	30 hours
Descriptive Grammar	120 hours
History of the language with elements of historical grammar	30 hours
Contrastive Grammar/Metrics	15 hours
Practical language skills – in the language of the specialist option	A: 900 hours B: 1200 hours

 

5. CURRICULUM CONTENTS FOR BASIC AND MAJOR COURSES

Introduction to Literary Studies

Theory of the literary work, stylistics, versification, literature types and genres.

History of Literature

History of literature in the target language area, including representative literary works in poetry, drama and prose.

History of Culture

Elements of history and culture of the target language area as determining its cultural specificity.

Introduction to Linguistics

Language categories, levels of linguistic analysis, paradigmatic and syntactic relationships, selected issues in the history of linguistics.

Descriptive Grammar

The contents cover thematic areas relevant for the target language, these selected from among the following: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.

Contrastive Grammar

Concepts, principles and objectives of comparative analysis.

History of the Language

Historical context of the development of the target language, including characteristics of the grammar system of the target language at the key stages of its development.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

Courses which should be provided within the following specialist options in addition to the minimum curriculum requirements:

Baltic Philology: Latvian	60 hours
Romance Philology: second Romance language	240 hours
Romanian Philology: French	800 hours
Slavic Philology. Second Slavic language	240 hours
Ukrainian and Byelarussian Philology: Russian	240 hours