Teaching ← EnglanTY

Organizing an in-service teacher training module – societal interaction at its best

Jun

5

2023

During the academic year of 2022-2023, the English Department and the Centre for Language Learning Research (Leala) have had the pleasure of hosting a national in-service teacher training module for second or foreign language (L2) teachers in Finland. We named this module SuSuKi, which stands for Sujuvuutta suulliseen kielitaitoon (roughly translated as “making oral language ...

A long way to Arcanum: the English Department on the move

Apr

21

2023

When the staff of the English Department have just moved into their brand-new premises in the newly renovated Arcanum building on the University’s lower campus at the beginning of 2023, this may be a convenient moment to take a brief look at the previous oases on the itinerary of the departmental caravan from its beginnings ...

Becoming an English teacher in Namibia and Finland

Nov

24

2022

This autumn, the School of Languages and Translation Studies has had a visitor from the University of Namibia (UNAM), Dr Meameno Shiweda, who is a specialist in teacher education. In this blog post, Meameno and Janne Skaffari talk about similarities and differences in what and whom they teach and, more broadly, in the educational systems ...

A year of remote learning – and cats 1

Apr

16

2021

What a year it has been! This could easily be a long blog post about the effects of the pandemic on teaching and learning and what pedagogical solutions have been implemented and experimented with at the department, but today we have more important things to discuss. We need to talk about cats. This year has ...

Visiting Poland and gaining international experience 1

Jun

17

2019

This spring has been very memorable, as I have had the pleasure of being a Visiting Professor in Kalisz, Poland. A visiting professor can refer to various kinds of things in the academic world. In this case, I was invited to the Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. ...

Introducing our latest permanent staff member: Q&A with Maarit Koponen

Nov

27

2017

Maarit Koponen visiting the Kennedy Space Center. 1. Tell us a little bit of who you are. I am a university lecturer of English, researcher of translation technology, a former professional translator, and a fan of both historical dramas and science fiction. I have an MA in English Philology and a PhD in Language Technology, ...

Shakespeare 400 revisited

Jan

11

2017

The Shakespeare 400 course was organised jointly by the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University in autumn 2016. After the first lecture on the history of English and the early printing history of Shakespeare’s works, the students delved deeper into other topics in Shakespeare studies. Aino Mäkikalli discussed Shakespeare’s sonnets, situating them in their ...

Shakespeare 400 in Turku 1

Oct

28

2016

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Universities and other institutions around the world have been organising special events and courses throughout the year. One of these special courses is Shakespeare 400, a joint effort of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. The course runs from late October ...

Beyond the ivory tower: Co-operation with a local upper secondary school

Mar

25

2015

When I was in upper secondary school (‘lukio’ in Finnish), two of my teachers organized a “Rome Club” (‘Rooma-kerho’), which could be taken as an optional course. In order to receive credit for the course, we needed to take part in a variety of activities, one of which was attending guest lectures by researchers and ...

Happy Holidays!

Dec

18

2014

I would like to wish all our students and staff a very relaxing Christmas break and rewarding New Year. Joel Kuortti Professor, Head of English Department Head of School of Languages and Translation studies