Chair of English Language No. 2

Chair of English Language No. 2 was founded in 1993. Since the creation of the Chair, Dr., Professor Elena Yerznkyan, has been heading it. The Chair develops its activities in several directions: educational, educational, scientific, publishing, and educational.

The Chair organizes English teaching in Yerevan State University's faculties of International Relations, Journalism, Economics and Management, Armenian Philology, Russian Philology, Oriental Studies, Mathematics, and Mechanics, as well as in the Center for Pedagogy and Education Development. Teaching is based on English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) and English for Professional Purposes (ESP) courses at the Undergraduate level and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the Graduate level.

In the process of teaching English, the Chair emphasizes the teaching of language skills corresponding to the specialty of the given faculty. The process of teaching English is aimed at the development of students' communicative abilities, covering all the skills of verbal activity (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). The Chair’s professors continue to develop educational programs aimed at the comprehensive study of English at the Undergraduate and Graduate levels, to align the subject descriptions with the established specifications.

The programs developed by the Chair served as a basis for publishing and later applying textbooks, methodical manuals, guides, dictionaries, and other supporting materials addressed to Armenian students.

The modern leading methodology of teaching foreign languages cannot be complete without the use of platforms and the latest technologies (ICT) created for the online teaching of English. The use of modern technologies allows both the teacher and the student to show an individual approach to the educational process, to identify the level of knowledge of each student, and to help him overcome difficulties and fully engage in the educational process. This is also facilitated by the computer program "Edusoft-English Discoveries", which covers 12 levels from basic to advanced, including business English (Executive and Business English).

Research is an inseparable part of the Chair’s activity. Today, the Chair carries out scientific studies in the following areas of linguistics: lexicography and lexicography, semantics and pragmatics, comparative language study and translation theory, text linguistics, as well as methodology and issues of English teaching. The Chair actively participates in both national and international conferences.

The professors of the Chair worked on the topics "Features of language transfer from Armenian in the English classroom" and "Dialogue in the intercultural context", the results of which were summarized in a number of published articles and monographs.

The Chair is also constantly working on developing and improving the foundations of the test system to introduce standards for different levels of language proficiency. Based on the latter, various manuals and guidelines on knowledge assessment have been published.

It is noteworthy that the scientific journal "Foreign Languages in the Higher School" is published on the initiative of the Chair, which is included in the list of periodicals acceptable to the Higher Qualification Committee of the RA approved for publishing the results of doctoral and candidate theses. This periodical of scientific works includes articles related to various issues of linguistics, foreign language teaching methodology, as well as literary studies.