Department of Foreign Languages

The Department of Foreign Languages is one of the first four departments of the Medical Institute that were founded in 1922. The formation of a new department was initiated through the introduction of Latin in the curriculum of the Medical Faculty at Yerevan State University. It was originally called the Department of Latin, and at various periods, was chaired by P.H. Sotnikyan, G.H. Gyanjutsyan, and H.C. Makaryan.

In 1930, when the State Medical Institute was granted full autonomy as a tertiary institution (by a Governmental decree of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic), teaching foreign languages became a part of the academic programme.

In 1955, for the purpose of jointly running study programmes in both Latin and foreign languages, the department was renamed The Department of Latin and Foreign Languages. Since 2005, the Russian language division has also formed part of the Department.

Over the years, the Department of Foreign Languages ​​was chaired by G.H. Gyanjutsyan (1950-1957), P.H. Sotnikyan (1957-1960), H.T. Arakelyan (1960-1995), and V.M. Balabanyan (1995-2018).

Since 2020, H.R. Hovhannisyan has been the Head of the Department.

First- and second-year students of the YMSU College, overseas students of the Premedical Department, and first-year local and overseas students of all university faculties study in the Department of Foreign Languages. Latin and Foreign languages are instructed in Armenian, English and Russian.

The language courses are designed to achieve the programme learning outcomes. These include essential communication skills in а professional environment (both in native and foreign languages), clearly structured and coherent oral and written speech, as well as the ethics of cross-cultural communication.

Academic literature mainly comprises internationally-acknowledged online and printed sources (e.g., Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Pearson Longman, Hueber Verlag, Stuttgard Verlag, Schubert-Verlag Leipzig).

Teaching at the Department is carried out through practice-based interactive classes, individual and group work, public speaking, discussions and debates, as well as audio and video materials, role-playing, situational tasks, and progress tests to assess the learners’ academic performance.

The course in Latin is designed to teach medical terminology used in general medicine, dentistry, pharmacology, nursing, laboratory diagnostics, etc.

There are also foreign language courses designed specifically for post-graduate students, clinical residents and employees of the university.

The Department of Foreign Languages collaborates closely with Yerevan State University, Stony Brook University of New York, the American University of Armenia, V. Brusov Yerevan State University, Moscow Medical Academy after Sechenov, Kursk State Medical University, as well as the British Council and the Moscow House-Center, which implements cultural and educational programmes in Armenia.

The departmental faculty undertakes research in theoretical, applied and comparative linguistics as well as teaching methods. The scope of studies includes:

• First and second language acquisition,
• Comparative analysis of Latin, Greek, and Armenian,
• Study of the Latin roots of medical terms,
• Scaffolded learning in teaching, Emergent language teaching, Interactionist methods in teaching and learning, etc.

The departmental faculty attend international and local conferences, and regularly engage in professional training courses. They also author research papers in Armenian, English and Russian which are then annually published in Armenian and international journals.

Departmental faculty members also edit medical textbooks, academic-methodological manuals, doctoral theses, research papers composed in English, German and Russian.