DON SPARLING, Friday, 1:30 – 2:30, room 50, plenary session
The DARK AGES: English IN THE AGE OF ʻNORMALIZATIONʼ
BIO: Don Sparling studied at the Universities of Toronto and Oxford. After coming to Czechoslovakia in 1969 he taught at language schools in Brno and Prague. In 1977 he joint the staff of the Department of English and American Studies at (what is now) Masaryk University, subsequently serving twice as Chair. From 2000 until his retirement in 2009 he was Director of Masaryk University’s Office for International Studies. He is the co-author (with Jaroslav Peprník and Stella Nangonová) of the four-volume series Angličtina pro jazykové školy and (with Jaroslav Peprník) of the two volumes of Angličtina pro filology, as well as the author of the cult handbook English or Czenglish: Jak se vyhnout čechismům v angličtině.
ABSTRACT: During the 1970s and 1980s Czechoslovakia was cut off from "the West" to a degree that is almost unimaginable nowadays. For those of us who were involved in teaching English - the language of the "imperialist enemy" - in those years, the hurdles were daunting: the state was fundamentally suspicious of all things English, and access to the language was highly limited. This informal presentation will take a personal look at, among other things, joining the English Department at the then Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (now Masaryk University), official efforts to standardize the English curriculum, the challenges in writing textbooks (for the state language schools, and English or Czenglish), obtaining teaching material, how the one single student exchange in the country was kept in existence, the curiosity of the Secret Police, and how the country's unique English Club came into existence.
The DARK AGES: English IN THE AGE OF ʻNORMALIZATIONʼ
BIO: Don Sparling studied at the Universities of Toronto and Oxford. After coming to Czechoslovakia in 1969 he taught at language schools in Brno and Prague. In 1977 he joint the staff of the Department of English and American Studies at (what is now) Masaryk University, subsequently serving twice as Chair. From 2000 until his retirement in 2009 he was Director of Masaryk University’s Office for International Studies. He is the co-author (with Jaroslav Peprník and Stella Nangonová) of the four-volume series Angličtina pro jazykové školy and (with Jaroslav Peprník) of the two volumes of Angličtina pro filology, as well as the author of the cult handbook English or Czenglish: Jak se vyhnout čechismům v angličtině.
ABSTRACT: During the 1970s and 1980s Czechoslovakia was cut off from "the West" to a degree that is almost unimaginable nowadays. For those of us who were involved in teaching English - the language of the "imperialist enemy" - in those years, the hurdles were daunting: the state was fundamentally suspicious of all things English, and access to the language was highly limited. This informal presentation will take a personal look at, among other things, joining the English Department at the then Jan Evangelista Purkyně University (now Masaryk University), official efforts to standardize the English curriculum, the challenges in writing textbooks (for the state language schools, and English or Czenglish), obtaining teaching material, how the one single student exchange in the country was kept in existence, the curiosity of the Secret Police, and how the country's unique English Club came into existence.