Chair of Romance Philology

The Chair of Romance Philology was formed based on the Chair of Romano-Germanic Studies, which was established in 1991, and followed a fruitful path of development. From the beginning, the Chair provided teaching of three foreign languages: French, Spanish, and Italian, and since 2007, Portuguese has also been taught in the Master's program. In 2009, the Chair of French Philology was established, and since then the Chair of Romance Philology has provided only the teaching of the three Romance languages: Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

The first head of the Chair of Romance Philology was the renowned French scholar, Dr., Professor Armand Nazaryan, who was followed by famous specialists such as Amalya Muradyan, Nvard Vardanyan, Zaven Harutyunyan, and Vahan Sargsyan. Each of them has a worthy contribution to the establishment of the Chair. Since 2011, Ph.D., Professor Hasmik Baghdasaryan, has been heading the Chair.

Today, the Chair carries out activities in several main directions: educational, methodological, scientific, and translational. Various research works are carried out in the Chair, which include a wide range of scientific interests and are related to various problems of Romance philology: semantics, phraseology, etymology, pragmatics, translation, stylistics, signology, various theoretical and practical problems of cross-cultural communication, etc.

In recent years, the professors of the Chair have made presentations at a number of national and international conferences and published a number of educational manuals, university textbooks, monographs, educational aids, and scientific-methodical articles, most of which were published in periodicals with a high impact factor. A number of works of Spanish and Latin American literature have been translated into Armenian by the efforts of the Chair's professors. The Chair also has significant achievements in the field of lexicography.

The Chair of Romance Philology is constantly focusing on the development and improvement of educational programs, taking into account the current requirements of the labor market. One of the main goals of the educational programs implemented by the Chair is to train such specialists in the field of cross-cultural communication who will be endowed with the ability to analyze and practically apply the stylistic, ethnocultural, and pragmatic features of Spanish (Italian) in socio-political, legal, diplomatic and business communication, as well as to perform written and oral translations. and skills.

The Chair implements the Undergraduate educational programs "English language, Spanish language and communication", and "English language, Italian language and communication".

The Chair of Romance Philology actively cooperates with prestigious foreign universities (Complutense University of Madrid, Granada, Valladolid, Cádiz, Valencia, Almeria, Ca Foscari, Perugia, Bologna, Heidelberg, etc.) by implementing various projects. Within the framework of cooperation with the University of Granada, there is a Spanish language and culture center attached to the Chair, one of the important goals of which is the development of multidisciplinary activities between the two universities.

Together with the famous center of Hispanological studies, the Cervantes Institute, the Chair organizes the international qualification exams for the Diploma in Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE) and with the University of Siena, the Italian language qualification exams according to the standards of the Pan-European System of Language Proficiency/Awareness.

The Chair has modern Italian and Spanish language cabinets, a rich professional library, which is constantly replenished with new publications, and is equipped with modern technical means of teaching foreign languages.

A lecturer seconded from the Italian MFA works in the Chair, whose role is particularly important in terms of the development of students' oral speech skills. The Chair also closely cooperates with the Consulate of the Kingdom of Spain, the Republic of Italy, and the Republic of Argentina in Armenia, implementing various cultural events.

One of the important links of the Chair's activity is the examination of theoretical and practical problems of translation, as well as the publication of the "Flower from Translation" series, the aim of which is to encourage and guide students' translation abilities. During their studies, students have the opportunity not only to be acquainted with the problems and basic concepts of translation as a science but also to practice and develop their translation skills and abilities by publishing such a series.