The field Czech as a foreign language has a tradition of more than fifty years at Charles University in Prague. This tradition is followed by research and pedagogic activities of the Institute of Czech Studieswhich provides a wide range of options for foreign students who are keen on the Czech language, literature, history, culture, and lifestyle, both traditional and modern. First of all, the Institute offers the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes of Czech as a foreign language, and then special courses designed particularly for exchange students. The Summer Language School, the 66th anniversary of which will held in the year of 2023, has acquired a prestige position with foreign scholars of Czech and Slavic languages. In addition, there are other successful programmes, such as a semestral comprehensive Czech Studies Programme which has become very popular for its combination of the language instruction with the introduction to Czech socio-cultural background. The increasing interest in learning Czech as a foreign language and the growing number of international students led up the Institute of Czech Studies to an extension of course offers (intensive and evening courses).
The programmes at the Institute of Czech Studies are headed by professors, associate professors and qualified lecturers of Czech as a foreign language who have also professional experience in teaching Czech at many foreign universities. From a professional point of view, the members of the Institute have realized the Dictionary of Czech Phraseology and Idiomatics (four volumes) and a number of specialized textbooks and teaching materials of Czech as a foreign language published by the university publishing house Karolinum.
All study programmes at the Institute of Czech Studies have been designed in relation to the contemporary research in the fields of linguistics, literary science and history. As Charles University and Prague itself have always been a unique crossroad of culture, we believe that study programmmes at Charles University enable students to understand a number of issues in a wider central-European historical and cultural context.
