Luděk Knittl
BSc, MA, MEd (Sheffield)
School of Languages and Cultures
University Teacher (Czech)
+44 114 222 7409
Full contact details
School of Languages and Cultures
2.85d
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I come from Moravia, the eastern part of the Czech Republic. Before I started teaching Czech at the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies in 2004, I had worked for a number of years as a translator, interpreter, tour guide, and facilitator in the area of personal development.
While at Sheffield, I have completed a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication Sciences, a Master's degree in Language Acquisition, and a professional Master's degree in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. I also became Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2014.
Apart from teaching at the university, I have worked as a free-lance community interpreter in Czech and Slovak.
- Research interests
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I am interested in various aspects of second language acquisition and language pedagogy. Previously, I have done projects on early acquisition of Czech phonology by English speakers, and on how biological motion events are encoded by advanced learners of Czech.
I have collaborated with Professor Neil Bermel on research exploring the frequency and acceptability of certain morphological features in Czech, and worked for three years as Research Associate on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. I am currently working as Project Administrator on a further project entitled Feast and Famine, which is looking into defectivity and overabundance in language.
My teaching-related research interests are centred around the use of technologies in language learning and teaching in Higher Education.
- Teaching interests
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In collaboration with colleagues at the department, I have been developing innovative teaching materials for all levels of our curriculum. These include Level 2 "Studies in Czech Culture", Level 1 "History of East Central Europe", both funded through CILASS (Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences) grants. I have also created an advanced course "Varieties of Czech", funded by CEELBAS (Centre for East European Language Based Area Studies) and a package of interactive online exercises for beginner learners of Czech.
I have received two student-nominated Academic Awards in the recent years. The first one for Innovative Teaching in relation to running a translation project called "Translating Czech Castles" in 2013, and the second one for Best Digital Teaching in the Learning and Teaching category in 2016.
- Teaching activities
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My teaching includes oral practice and language classes, modules in Czech history and culture at all levels of study, and I teach a School-wide module on language pedagogy.
- MDL1001/RUS113/114 Czech Language and Culture for Beginners (module leader)
- MDL109 The Czechs in Central European History (module leader)
- MDL206 Prague at the Crossroads of East and West (module leader)
- MDL2001/RUS3071/3072 Czech Intermediate I, II
- RUS381/382 Varieties of Written and Spoken Czech I, II (module coordinator)
- MDL304 Dissertation
- MDL305 Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages (module leader)