Language Centres at a Crossroads

This round table's ambition is to move forward the cooperation between the corporate sector and language centres, their individual teachers and units. To share the good practice that already exists, to get inspiration from both language as well as non-language classes and to promote more cooperation where it makes sense, as the corporate world can provide an authentic link with the areas our students need to be ready for. On the other hand, the companies need people well-equipped with languages, which is exactly what the language centres provide.

The round table will take place under the auspices of doc. JUDr. Radim Polčák, Ph.D. vice-rector for legal and policy affairs, information technologies and corporate relations. Other guests will include representatives from the corporate sectors, e.g. IBM, Red Hat, AT&T, Kiwi, who act as coordinators of cooperation with universities.

Key topics for debate include the following:

• How can language centres cooperate with companies?
• Can they take inspiration from non-language classes cooperation?
• Where do the needs of language centres and commercial world meet?
• What can both worlds offer to each other?
• What exactly can both sectors do for each other?
• Practical steps to take upon return to work.

Eva Rudolfová teaches ESP and EAP classes at the Masaryk University Language Centre. She is also the head of the Faculty of Informatics Unit and as such she creates courses where she tries to find opportunities for linking the academic world with the corporate one within a language class. She is also a passionate member of English Autonomously, a counsellor and an ardent ambassador of life and transferrable skills. In her lessons she promotes cooperation, effective communication, learning skills, self-reflection, autonomy and emotional intelligence. Her key concept in her professional career is authenticity.

Radim Polcak is the vice-rector of Masaryk University (MU) and the head of the Institute of Law and Technology at the Law Faculty at MU. He is the general chair of the Cyberspace conference and the founder of the Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology and the Review of Law and Technology (Revue pro právo a technologie). He is a founding fellow of the European Law Institute and the European Academy of Law and ICT, a panellist at the .eu ADR arbitration court and a member of various governmental and scientific expert and advisory bodies and project consortia around the EU. He also served as a Special Adviser for Robotics and Data Protection Policy to the European Commission. Radim authored or co-authored over 150 scientific papers, books and articles namely on topics related to cyberlaw and legal philosophy.