State Exams

BC State Exam Topics – valid from summer term 2024

The exam covers two fields – Literature (15′) nad Linguistics (15′)

Topics in Literature

Topics in Linguistics

 

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MA State Exam Topics – valid from summer term 2023

Didactics. (New Version) Length of the part – 20 minutes.

            The exam will include:

  1. Discussion of a theoretical issue in ELT methodology (see the list below).
  2. Practical task to be designed impromptu.

A student will be assigned teaching materials (a text for reading or listening, a picture/pictures, song lyrics, etc) and will have to suggest a set of activities  in order to achieve a certain objective. For example:  Reflect upon  the following picture. Suggest some activities to use them as stimuli for oral work/skill integration at A2 (B1) level.

  1. Discussion of a portfolio. The portfolio should include:
  • lesson plans (minimum 6) with all the necessary supporting materials
  • reflective paper based on the competences defined in the EPOSTL with the help of ‘can-do descriptors’. The paper should also contain description of your further steps in learning teaching.

 Theoretical issues for discussion:

  1. Historical overview of language teaching methods. Advantages and disadvantages of the methods of the past. Post method era. Principles of language teaching.
  2. The Informed and Enlightened ‘Approach.’ Communicative Language Teaching.
  3. CEFR versions (2001 and 2018) and their impact on foreign language teaching in the Czech Republic. The action-oriented approach and common reference levels.
  4. Motivation in language learning. Characteristics, types and sources. The components of motivational teaching practice.
  5. Teaching listening. An overview of listening comprehension: Processes, building mental representation of meaning. Factors that make listening difficult.
  6. Teaching listening. Learners’ competences for listening in CEFR new companion (B1). Pre/while/post-listening stages and their rationale.
  7. Research findings related to teaching reading. Categories for reading in CEFR.
  8. Intensive and extensive reading. Skimming and scanning. Techniques for checking reading comprehension. Purposes of pre/while/after-reading stages.
  9. Oral communication skills in ELT research. Oral interaction. Characteristics of spoken language.
  10. CEFR (Companion volume with new descriptors). Categories of overall spoken production and spoken interaction. Examples of descriptors for Pre-A1 – B1 level.
  11. Types of classroom speaking performance. Principles for teaching speaking skills. Maximising speaking opportunities and facilitating autonomous language use.
  12. Teaching talk as interaction. Simulation and role-plays.
  13. CEFR (Companion volume with new descriptors) levels for writing. Categories of overall written production.
  14. Research on second language writing. Difference between written and spoken language. Social and cultural aspects of writing.
  15. Approaches to teaching writing. Teaching writing: types of classroom writing performance. Principles for teaching writing skills.
  16. Ways of presenting grammar: deductive vs inductive. Texts and contexts. Grammar as a communicative resource. A cognitive model of learning stages. Communicative criteria and grammar activities. Types of prompts for practicing grammar.
  17. Teaching lexis: how words are remembered and learned; ways of presenting vocabulary (explanation and illustration of meaning) and practicing vocabulary. Types of activities for vocabulary practice or integration.
  18. Teaching phonetics: goals and principles. CEFR on phonological control. The Lingua Franca Core and the most important phonological features. Activities.
  19. CLIL: core features and underlying principles.
  20. Teacher development: reflection, collaboration with colleagues. Teacher competences.

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Linguistics: Exam domains for distribution

  1. Theories of reference: a) The referential theory of meaning b) Categorization principles and prototypes
  2. Features of verb semantics: a) Lexical aspect and verb meaning b) Manner, motion and path
  3. Linguistic paradigms: Shifts and challenges: a) Theory formation in linguistic history b) The Philosophy of language
  4. Language and culture: a) The neo-Whorfian model of semantics b) Anthropological linguistics
  5. Language change and the history of English:  a) Sound change: types and motivations b) Lexical change: borrowing and lexical loss
  6. The linguistic study of pragmatics: a) Speech acts and discourse situations b) Coherence and cohesion
  7. Language acquisition: a) Nature vs. nurture b) First vs. second language acquisition
  8. Language in society: a) Language and social groups b) Varieties of English world-wide
  9. Language and cognition: a) Conceptual metaphors b) Language processing
  10. Research methods in linguistics: a) Questionnaire design & field research methods b) Quantitative data evaluation

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MA State Exams in English and American Literature –
Reading List Instructions

The MA final state exam in English and American literature assumes adequately in-depth knowledge of the historical development of English –language literature from the beginnings to the 20th and 21st centuries, and competence in its independent and informed interpretation. Students are expected to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the current developments of literary practice and literary studies in the English-speaking world, based on the close reading of not only primary texts, but also of major critical studies and representative theoretical texts.

For the exam, bring a reading list, which serves as a representative portfolio of your work in literature. For preparing your reading list, please heed the following guidelines:

 

  • Your reading list must contain a minimum of 30 titles of primary literature, and 20 titles of theoretical and critical nature, such as essays, book chapters, literary histories etc.
  • Your list must be organized chronologically, neatly and clearly structured and computer-typed. The items must be numbered.
  • Your reading list must cover all the major periods of the historical development of British and American literature.
  • The titles on your reading must represent all the major literary genres, ie. poetry, prose, and drama, in reasonably equal proportion. (To be precise, all three major genres must be represented by the minimum of 20% of the titles on your list.)
  • Do not list more items than two for one author. Exceptions are poems and short stories, and truly major writers such as Dickens, and, of course, Shakespeare:

(You can list more items by one author on the condition that it is above the minimum count of items on your list. You can use this “bonus count” to indicate your reading preferences and strong points, and thus to inspire the discussion during the exam.)

  • Your list must include five plays by Shakespeare, generally in the following proportion: two tragedies, two comedies, and one other play (historical play, romance etc.)

 

Master State Exam Questions – Literature

  1. The Aesthetics of the English Renaissance. Literary and Cultural Tradition of the Renaissance. Theoretical and Critical Reflections of Renaissance Literature.
  2. From Classicism to Neo-classicism. The Archetypal Patterns in Literature in English. The Classical Tradition and its Transformations.
  3. The Age of Reason. The Ideology of the Enlightenment. Forms and Manifestations of Realism in English-language Fiction.
  4. The Aesthetic Ideology of Romanticism. Theoretical Reflections of Romantic Poetry. Transformations of Romanticism.
  5. Transformations of Realism in English-language Literature – Naturalism, Regionalism, Aestheticism.
  6. The Context and Aesthetic Ideology of Modernism. Forms and Manifestations of Modernism in English-language Literature.
  7. From Modernism to Postmodernism. Postmodernist Concerns and Their Manifestations in English-language Literature.
  8. Women’s Writing, Feminisms, and Their Reflections in English-language Literature.
  9. Multiculturalism as Aesthetic Ideology. Reflections of Cultural Diversity in English-language Literature.
  10. Ways of Reading, or, From Text to Context. New Criticism, Structuralism, Reader-Response Criticism. Interfaces of Literary Texts and Literary Theories.