The Institute of Linguistics at the University of Opole was formally established in 2019, although its roots date back to the early days of the Higher School of Pedagogy in Opole. It was established as a result of the restructuring of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Opole, taking over the linguistics departments from the former institutes: English Philology, Germanic Philology, French Culture and Language, Polish Studies and Cultural Studies, and Slavic Studies. Among the oldest institutes at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Opole, in its earlier structure, were the Institute of Polish Studies and Cultural Studies and the Institute of Slavic Studies. Both were linked to the establishment of the Silesian Insurgents Higher School of Pedagogy in Wrocław, and both also came into being in the Opole region – albeit under different names – in 1954. The remaining units were established in the 1970s (the Institute of English Studies) and the 1990s (the Institute of German Studies and the Department of French Culture and Language).
The Institute of Linguistics is now represented by two academic disciplines: linguistics and the study of culture and religion. Its first director was Prof. Jolanta Nocoń, and the Institute comprises seven departments: the Department of English Language Acquisition, the Department of English, the Department of French, the Department of German, the Department of Polish, the Department of Slavic Languages, and the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies.
The high standard of research conducted at the Institute of Linguistics resulted in the discipline of linguistics being awarded category A in the evaluation for the years 2017–2021.
The Department of Polish Language and the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies
The foundations of Polish studies in Opole were laid by eminent linguists and professors: Stanisław Rospond, Henryk Borek and Feliks Pluta. The research they initiated focused on historical-linguistic and dialectological issues. As the centre developed, the research work of Opole’s scholars, centred around the next generation of professors—Stanisław Gajda, Bogusław Wyderka and Ewa Malinowska, resulted, among other things, in the establishment of the Opole School of Stylistics and the Opole School of Onomastics, making Opole linguistics recognisable and respected both at home and abroad. Currently, the Department of Polish Language continues the academic traditions of its predecessors, focusing on areas such as thestyles and discourses of contemporary Polish, onomastics, and Silesian Polish, whilst also tackling new research challenges in fields including Polish language teaching and speech therapy.
Notable achievements include ‘Stylistyka’ – an internationally recognised journal published since 1992 and listed by the Ministry of Education and Science – two volumes of guides to Polish stylistics (1995 and 2013) and the four-volume *Comparison of Contemporary Slavic Languages*, as well as the *Language and Education* series, which promotes the achievements of academic disciplines concerned with the study of educational communication and the linguistic aspects of education. The Department of Polish Language organises regular conferences on stylistics and language teaching that are highly regarded in the international academic community. It is also worth noting that in 1979, the Opole Department of Polish Studies organised the 1st National Onomastic Conference, contributing to the establishment of a nationwide onomastic community, and in 2012, it hosted the 5th Congress of Polish Studies Abroad.
Linguists and cultural studies scholars were formally brought together in 1973. It was then that the Department of Silesian Folklore and Literature became part of the structure of the Institute of Polish Philology, which was later transformed in 1988 into the Department of Folklore. The founder of this unit was Prof. Dorota Simonides, and her colleagues were Professors Teresa Smolińska and Piotr Kowalski.
Department of Slavic Languages
The origins of Slavic studies in Opole are linked to the development of Russian studies. In 1954, the Department of Russian Language and the Department of Russian and Soviet Literature were established at what was then the Higher Pedagogical School. These formed the basis for the creation of the Institute of Russian Philology in 1974, which was renamed in 1990 as the Institute of East Slavic Philology. In 1981, the range of research topics undertaken by Opole’s Slavicists was expanded to include a Bohemian perspective, thanks to the developing field of Bohemian studies in Opole, initially within the Department of Slavic Linguistics, which comprised Prof. Antoni Furdal and the then-M.A. Mieczysław Balowski, operating within the structure of the Institute of Polish Philology, and subsequently within the Department of Slavic Studies – Institute of Polish Studies and Cultural Studies. In 2014, the Department of Slavic Studies merged with the Institute of East Slavic Philology to form the Institute of Slavic Studies. The development of Slavic studies in Opole was made possible by the work of many distinguished scholars, such as Professors Antoni Furdal, Stanisław Kochman, Wojciech Chlebda and Władysław Lubaś.
Currently, staff at the Department of Slavic Languages conduct research in the following areas: the theory and practice of phraseology and monolingual and translation phraseography, particularly in the Polish-Russian-Czech context; translation paremiology and paremiography; the functioning of precedent phenomena in Polish and Russian; linguistic-cultural worldviews of the Slavs, Slavic teolinguistics, the language of online communication (including new online genres), translation lexicography and the use of compound texts therein. An important aspect of the academic staff’s research activities is their participation in international research projects, such as ‘Universities for the Borderlands’, ‘Česko-polsko-ruský idiomatikon’, ‘Integrace v jazycích – jazyky v integraci’ and ‘Česko-polské lexikografické centrum’.
Department of English Language Acquisition and Department of English
English Studies in Opole has existed since 1978, initially as the Department of English Philology, and subsequently as the Institute of English Philology. The founders of English Studies in Opole were Professors Marian Adamus and Leon Komincz, whilst Professor Andrzej Ciuk made the greatest contribution to the Institute’s subsequent development.
The research interests of staff from both past and present English studies units within the Institute of Linguistics focus on: the history of the English language, rhetoric and stylistics, linguistics and cognitive semantics, lexicography, sociolinguistics, and English language acquisition. Today’s Department of English continues these academic traditions, complementing them with research and projects in the fields of translation studies, corpus linguistics, phraseology and discourse analysis. The Department of English Language Acquisition, in turn, focuses on: the determinants of language acquisition, strategies for learning pronunciation, the role of self-reflection and the cultural environment in the process of acquiring a foreign language, the personalities of teachers and learners, and multilingualism. Between 2010 and 2019, as part of these activities, seven academic conferences were organised, combined with workshops for teachers under the banner ‘Topics in Applied Linguistics’, which led to the publication of five collective monographs. Since 2019, staff from the English-language departments at the Institute of Linguistics have been active in the Multilingualism Unit of the FORTHEM alliance of European universities. Thanks to this international initiative, the project “Citizen Science for Schools in the City of Opole” (2020–2023) was carried out. This project not only promotes the humanities but also demonstrates the impact of linguists’ academic work on the university’s wider community.
Department of German
The unit traces its origins to 1990, when the Institute of Germanic Philology was established. Initially, Prof. Marian Adamus provided significant support for the organisation of German studies in Opole, whilst the first director of the Institute, Prof. Grażyna Barbara Szewczyk, oversaw the entire operation. In 1994, this position was taken over by Dr Maria Katarzyna Lasatowicz.
Currently, staff at the Department of German conduct research in the fields of dialectology, multilingualism, specialised languages, phraseology, discourse linguistics, translation studies, bilingual education, advertising language, media language, contrastive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics. It is worth noting the Department’s academic staff’s participation in international research projects: ‘Language Across Generations: Contact-Induced Change in Morphosyntax in German-Polish Bilingual Speech’ under the Beethoven 2 programme, “German Media Language Abroad: The Case of the German Minority Press in Central and Eastern Europe”, funded by the Minister of Culture.
As part of their research, teaching and organisational activities, staff at the Department of German Studies edit the journal “Germanistische Werkstatt” and the publication series “Forum für Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft”, and collaborate with: Haus Schlesien (Königswinter), the Museum of Opole Silesia, the Austrian Library in Opole, the House of Polish-German Cooperation, and the Social and Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia.
Department of French Culture and Language
The Institute of French Culture and Language was established in 2018. Previously, from 1995, teaching and research activities in the field of French culture and language were carried out within the Inter-institutional Department of French Culture and Language, which gained independence in 2005, separating from the Institute of Polish Philology. At that time, Prof. Krystyna Modrzejewska was the founder and director of the Department of French Culture and Language.
The staff of the Department of French form a young, dynamic team that has already established a strong reputation within the academic community, as evidenced by invitations to give guest lectures at leading academic institutions, as well as the international academic conferences organised in Opole, which attract considerable interest from Romance scholars from around the world. Academic and teaching cooperation with the University of Montpellier has enabled students to obtain a double Master’s degree from the University of Opole and the University of Montpellier.