Wide context
Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)
/^t/As a student of English on Poznan University, I have no right to choose courses and lectures, I want to attend. All the classes are compulsory and must be fulfilled by all the student in the department (except few pro-seminars and MA thesis seminars). Regardless of particular interests all the students are trained to be teachers with the skilful use of practical English and also knowledge of linguistics, translation, history and culture, literature, psychology and philosophy. Nothing strange, thus, that this knowledge turns out to be fragmentary. Besides, students' predisposition are not taken into account, and in fact very few people show the teaching talent. Much more students prefer to become translators in future. Fortunately, the translation course is on the curriculum, as well. However, the most important topics in the UAM English Department, next to practical English of course, seem to be linguistics and historical linguistics. The problem is that very few students are interested in researching these fields. A lot more of them would be grateful to spend the time that linguistics courses take them, on training practical English or doing research in literature or culture of English speaking nations. Unfortunately, literature and culture are treated somehow marginally in Anglistica Posnaenesia. During three semesters of English literature course and one semester of American literature neither of these very wide fields of studies can be even roughly presented. Moreover, two semesters of history and two semesters of English and American culture course are ridiculous for students interested in these topics.