EL Fellow Program
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Country Bulgaria
City Plovdiv
Host Institution University of Plovdiv
Project Description
The English and American Studies department of the University of Plovdiv requests an EL Fellow for AY 2007/2008 to teach critical reading and writing, academic writing and composition and conversation classes. The position at the department involves conducting advance-level writing courses at the BA level, the possibility to offer electives in the field related to American Studies, such as American politics, culture, intercultural communication, multiculturalism etc., and assistance in the extra-curricular activities run by the American Corner at Plovdiv University.
Project Objectives
Any major university with an English department must have at least one native speaker to teach in that department. The British Council has not placed any English teachers at University of Plovdiv in recent years. In order to maintain an American presence and to help further develop the American Studies components of the curriculum in the English and American Studies department of the University, it is crucial to place an American EL professional at Plovdiv University in the next academic year. The EL Fellow will help the department with curriculum development and teaching English for special purposes (ESP) like business and law. This would facilitate the professional direction of the new and increased demands for the use of the English language in the new, up and coming market economy in Bulgaria.
About the Host Institution
The University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski" is located in Plovdiv - the second largest city in Bulgaria - in south-central Bulgaria. It is also an ancient city that was inhabited in Thracian times, then in ancient Greek and ancient Roman times. It has continued to uphold strong cultural and educational traditions to this day. Paisii Hilendarski is one of the several universities in Bulgaria which has an American Studies Department that is part of the English Department. The latter has been in existence for over 15 years and it has a full-time teaching staff of 18 and a part-time teaching staff of 10 additional lecturers. The department has 800 students and offers three majors for BA degrees: British and American studies; Bulgarian and English philology; and Russian and English philology. In the fall of 2005, Plovdiv University hosted an international conference in American Studies, which means that the University is becoming more important in the American Studies and English teaching field. In the winter of 2004 an American Studies center and library (an American Corner) opened at the new University building, which also currently houses a western philologies library, making Plovdiv University a major regional center for American Studies. It is crucial that there be an EL professional at Plovdiv University who is a native speaker. The English and American Studies department had such a Fellow last year and again this year and are very happy with the EL Fellow program. They would like to continue this successful work in the future, as well as to fill a vacuum in terms of the Fulbright professor whom they are not certain that they will get this year. This is especially important now keeping in mind the additional interest that the American Corner has generated among the students and the extra work load it has created among the faculty of the department.
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