Becoming an English teacher in Namibia and Finland

Becoming an English teacher in Namibia and Finland
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

A year of remote learning – and cats
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

Visiting Poland and gaining international experience
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

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

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

Shakespeare 400 in Turku
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

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

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

The Department by the River

The Department by the River
As mentioned earlier in the Tale of Two Departments, there are two Departments of English here in Turku. Situated as we are on the University Hill, our department is known as the Department Up the Hill, while our Åbo Akademi sister department (right at the brink of the river Aura) is known as the Department ...

How languages are learnt

How languages are learnt
It’s Christmas in September for anyone interested in language learning and teaching! A few years ago, the Department of English was actively involved in a popular course Language Teaching and Learning, which was a team-taught course for language and education majors. We are happy to announce that the contents of this course have now been ...