Since its foundation in 1972 the Department has been distinguished for the spectacular number of outstanding personalities involved in its work, such as Lev Grinberg, an interpreter at the Nurnberg Trial, Leonid Prudnikov, a master of literary translation, Full Professors Anatoly Dorodnykh, Leonid Chernovaty, Iryna Shevchenko, Alla Martyniuk, whose names are known far beyond the boundaries of the University. They have laid solid scientific and creative foundations of the Department, a translation school which has brought up hundreds of specialists in this complex art. The famous Literary Translation School guided by a well-known Ukrainian writer and translator Inna Havrylchenko, provided an excellent start in life for many masters of artistic word. Now the School continues its work under the guidance of Associate Professor Olexandr Kalnychenko, a renown translator of belletristic literature.

The Department boasts qualified staff: The Department’s 13 payroll positions are filled in by 2 Doctors of Letters (Leonid Chernovaty, Alla Martyniuk) and 10 PhDs/Associate Professors (Iryna Frolova, Olexandr Rebriy, Olexandr Kalnychenko, Natalia Kovalchuk, Tetyana Hanicheva, Tetyana Lukyanova, Ihor Kamynin, Maria Kozyreva, Antonina Ivakhnenko). Associate Professor Iryna Frolova is expected to complete her Doctor of Letters’ dissertation in 2010-2011 academic year, Associate professor Olexandr Rebriy starts his senior doctorate sabbatical in 2011. Two instructors (Alla Olkhovska, Anton Tiliha) are postgraduate students, others conduct their research as applicants for the PhD degree.

The Department has a considerable scientific potential. The research is conducted in two main directions: 1) Translation Studies and Translation Teaching Methods; 2) Regulatory Linguistics. For the last five years the findings within the first research direction headed by Full Professor Leonid Chernovaty have been presented in over 50 publications, as well as have been implemented in teaching materials for training future interpreters/translators (4 textbooks and 6 manuals approved by the Ministry of Education and Science), which are used in many Ukrainian universities engaged in training interpreters/translators. Within the second direction headed by Full Professor Alla Martyniuk there originated a Regulatory Linguistics school of thought conducting fundamental research in the field of Germanic Philology, as well as in such areas as Cognitive Linguistics, Discourse Research, Lingvocultural Studies, Gender Linguistics. This school focuses on the role of a linguistic sign in regulating individuals’ (as members of a lingvo-cultural society) social behavior. The School has 16 PhDs: nine of them got their PhD degrees under the supervision of Full Professor Alla Martyniuk, and six – under the supervision of Associate Professor Iryna Frolova. The latter’s “Confrontation Strategies in English Discourse” monograph is considered to have started a new research area within the present School. Research findings have been published in over 110 papers.

The department offers a Major in Philology with a prospective employment as interpreter/translator or teacher of two foreign languages and provides the following courses: Theory of Translation, History of Translation, Translation Teaching Methods, Practical Courses of Translation/Interpreting from and into English at all departments of the School of Foreign Languages, courses of Contrastive Lexicology, Grammar and Stylistics, special courses in Translation Editing, Adaptive (Abstract and Annotation) Translation, Patent Translation. Leading members of the Department stimulate postgraduate students’ research by providing special courses and exercising scientific supervision of their research projects.