The chair is headed by the Candidate of Philological Sciences, Professor O.L. Zaytseva.
The Chair of West European Languages and Cultures team is known by its successes in academic and scientific work.
A high rate of scientific work is provided by the head of the chair O.L. Zaytseva, who is the author of a whole range of textbooks, academic aids, and monographs. Her text-book called “Your Real English” was approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and is extensively used in English language education in our university, as well as in other institutions.
Professor of the chair, Doctor of Philological Sciences O.A. Alimuradov for many years have been carrying out studies for conceptual and cognitive linguistics. The results of his works are published in monographs and are used in dissertation researches of postgraduate students and lecturers of the chair. In 2011 O.A. Alimuradov’s monograph called “Concept and Linguistic Semantics” won the All-Russian exhibition in Sochi and was included in “The Gold Fund of Russian Science”.
O.A. Alimuradov is the first deputy of the editor of “Vestnik PGLU” journal; chairman of the North Caucasus Division of Russian Association of Linguists Cognitologists; Deputy of the editor of “Language. Text. Discourse” published by Russian Association of Linguists Cognitologists; founder of the linguistic studies of the chair, devoted to the terminological systems. He is a member of Dissertation Board for a defense of Candidate and Doctoral theses in Philology in PSLU. His students M.N. Latu and A.V. Razduev successfully continue the scientific and research traditions of the chair, implementing scientific work in projects and grants:
Project part of the State Task of the Russian Ministry of Education for 2017-2019 no. 34.3234.2017/ПЧ Development of linguistic principals of projecting and formation of an expert system of scientific elements presentation based on the construction of terminological and semantic networks, 01/01/2017 – 12/31/2019; Grant of the President of the Russian Federation no. 14.Z56.16.4913-МК Complex cognitive research and development of the prototypic model of term definition based on the reconstruction of a frame and semantic network (on the example of different scientific focus areas). 01/01/2016 – 12/31/2017.
Professor L.V. Pravikova, Doctor of Philological Sciences is a constant participant of many international conferences on cognitive linguistics, communication theory, which took place in the USA, Canada, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, and Scotland. The last conference called “Populism under a Spotlight”, Kennan Alumni Conference took place in Germany (Berlin, November 5-7, 2017). For several times she won grants and had foreign tours of duty (Washington, USA). In 2013-2014 she took part in the Grant Program of Russian Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Technology at Sholokhov Moscow State Humanitarian University. She is a member of PSU Dissertation Board for the defense of Candidate and Doctoral theses in Philology.
For years of the chair (since 1995) tutors defended more than 20 Candidate and 3 Doctoral dissertations. This teaching team includes V.S. Aganesov, E.S. Bocharova, A.B. Drokina, M.B. Lebedeva, L.V. Pravikova, S.V. Chechel. Young lecturers of the chair achieved great success in education and were awarded in the 75th anniversary of the university: A.A. Zaytseva, M.A. Ibragimov, M.M. Kokova, M.P. Sarkisyan, O.Y. Gukosyants.
The principal research focus areas of the chair are:
- Cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, conceptual semantics, semantic syntaxes, comparative linguistics, terminology (Professor L.V. Pravikova, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor O.A. Alimuradov, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor O.L. Zaytseva, Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences),
- The linguistic situation in the North Caucasus: theoretic and practice problems (Professor L.V. Pravikova, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor M.A. Ibragimov),
- Cognitive aspects of the foreign languages teaching methods in a higher educational institution (Professor L.V. Pravikova, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor O.L. Zaytseva, Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences, Associate Professor A.E. Mazevskaya, Candidate of Pedagogic Sciences, senior lector I.Y. Kuzminova).
The students’ research work at the chair is organized on the following focus areas: lexicology problems (M.B. Lebedeva), pragmatics and semantic syntaxes (L.V. Pravikova, O.L. Zaytseva, A.B. Drokina, S.V. Chechel), concept development (A.A. Alimuradov, M.N. Latu, L.V. Pravikova), democracy and human rights development (M.A. Ibragimov); languages and cultures of the North Caucasus (L.V. Pravikova, O.L. Zaytseva, M.A. Ibragimov); contemporary British literature (M.B. Lebedeva, E.S. Bocharova, V.S. Aganesov, N.A. Kulintseva).
Results of the lectors’ research work are reported at the international scientific and theoretic, scientific and practical conferences, forums, and seminars:
- 4th International Conference on Education and Social Sciences 6-8 February 2017 - Istanbul, Turkey.
- 4th International Conference on Education, Social Sciences and Humanities 10-12 July 2017 – Dubai, UAE.
- The 26th International Round Table DESTROYED WORLDS… NEW WORLDS» 27-28 April 2017 – Bulgaria
- International Science and Practice Conference «Science and Practice: New Discoveries», November 29-30, 2017. Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary – Russia, Moscow.
International science and practice conference – Scientific Contribution of Greece into the Development of Contemporary Social Technologies (Pyatigorsk, Russia, 03/24/2017) continued the practice of scientific events of the chair.
Bilingualism in the Reality of Ethnic Cultures Interaction is a seminar devoted to the study of the languages and cultures of the North Caucasus integration (supervised by L.V. Pravikova, M.A. Ibragimov, O.L. Zaytseva). It is included in the activity field of the Academic and Innovative Laboratory – Rhetoric Practices in the Professional Education (Professor L.V. Pravikova), which was formed in 2008 in order to start scientific working-outs and implement projects which have an innovative theoretic and practice character in the field of German and Roman languages, Russian language and others. The studies are carried out within the frameworks of scientific areas of focus, developed at the chair: cognitive linguistics, linguistic concept development, discourse analysis theory, text theory, typology, semantic syntax. Area of expertise also includes social, linguistic and cultural problems of the North Caucasus languages development.
Offered interdisciplinary focus of the scientific studies and technological projects fully corresponds to the priority direction – Cognitive sciences and technologies, which organizes events to support minority languages, as well as to provide language policy of the government in the North Caucasus. The results of the scientific studies: collected papers “Questions of Roman, German, and Russian Philology” (Pyatigorsk, 2014, 2016) and anniversary collected papers “Timely Problems of Linguistics and Linguodidactics, in the Context of Linguistic Reality Cognition” (Germany, Lambert Academic Publishing, 2017).
The chair received certificates of state registration of an intellectual property (more than 25 items), including:
- Academic aids in English language (O.L. Zaytseva Your Real English, 2015) and French language (A.E. Mazevskaya Speaking French Fluently, 2017);
- English and Russian Database of Terms for Horse-Breeding and Horseracing (O.A. Alimuradov, M.N. Latuv, A.V. Razduev, no. 2016620018 dated 01/11/2016); English and Russian electronic terminology database for perfume and cosmetic industry (O.A. Alimuradov, Z.S. Gandaloev) and others;
- Electronic Multilanguage Dictionary of Astronomic Terms (M.N. Latu, A.A. Levit, no. 2017617680 dated 07/11/2017).
Results of the Scientific and Academic activity of the chair’s tutors are presented in the academic aids, published by the basic educational programs for bachelor students and specialists: Your Way to the Top (M.B. Lebedeva, E.S. Bocharova, Pyatigorsk, 2015); Communicating Ideas (M.B. Lebedeva, E.S. Bocharova, Pyatigorsk, 2015); Espanol de Hoy (A.A. Zaytseva, Pyatigorsk, 2017); Cours Pratique de Lаngue Francaise, Apprendre la français (A.E. Mazevskaya, Pyatigorsk, 2017); Your Real English (O.L. Zaytseva, Pyatigorsk, 2014, AMA mark of the Ministry of Education and Science). Professional English: Insight into Oil and Gas Industry (M.R. Sarkisyan, Pyatigorsk, 2017), Modern English in Practice (O.L. Zaytseva, M.R. Sarkisyan, Pyatigorsk, 2015) and others.
The use of new technologies in the educational process, among which:
- Methods of distance education of students using electronic information and educational environment edu.pgu in offered disciplines;
- Technology of discourse modelling for interactive practice lessons;
- Training methods and technologies in the practice of competent skills and foreign languages education; significantly raises the teaching level.
For last four years the chair’s tutors published more than 200 scientific and academic articles in Russian universities, and in foreign publishing houses, including RSCI, Scopus, Web of Science, Erich; 14 academic aids for students (550,0 p.l.). Monographs: M.N. Latu, Nomination in Developing Term Systems (Pyatigorsk, 2015); O.A. Alimuradov, O.Y. Gukosyants, Problems of Linguistics, Theory of Language, and Applied Linguistics (Novosibirsk, 2015); A.E. Mazevskaya, Moral Personal Qualities Formation Process in Japan (Germany, Lambert Academic Publishing, 2016); V.S. Aganesov, Casual Utterances in English Language (Pyatigorsk, 2017).