Currciculum of foreign language for special purpose at universities with economic focus – the theory and practice

The knowledge of foreign languages has always been inseparable part of education and a part of spiritual wealth of every human being. At present, it also becomes one of the conditions for employment and success of university graduates on labour market, the precondition of which is a correctly assembled curriculum of a foreign specialized language both in its cultivation and qualification part. The goal of this dissertation is to on the one hand examine significant features of our presence which have influence on cultivation component of curriculum in particular, and examining the requirements of practice which determine its qualification component. From the synthesis of conclusions of both parts, we formulate recommendations for assembling specialized foreign language curriculum for universities of economic focus on a specific case of the curriculum of specialized German at University of Economics, Prague. We define the notion curriculum in theoretical part and we deal with curriculum from synchronic and diachronic aspect. Hermeneutical approach examines its social determinants. Furthermore we deal with current problem of special methodologies, which touch upon the addressed problem: methodology of tertiary education, methodology of foreign languages, methodology of German and methodology of specialized German. In conclusion of the theoretical part, space is devoted to language policy in Czech and European context and we summarize current state of solution of our research problem. In the research part, we deal with the qualification part of curriculum by means of empirical research of University of Economics, Prague graduates focused on the analysis of current demands of labour market on the knowledge of and the comparison of these requirements with the existing curriculum of German at University of Economics, Prague. It has been verified in the research whether the level of graduates´ knowledge for practice is sufficient and gives them competitive value on the labour market, what activities they do in German, how they reflect their studies of German at University of Economics, Prague and what their suggestions to curriculum, which would better respect their educational needs, are. Conclusions of the research are compared with the existing curriculum as it is depicted in graduate´s profile, as well as syllabuses of individual subjects and textbooks which are used in tuition at present. We derive from both of the steps that the nature of changes in curriculum is legitimate. Concrete suggestions for the innovation of curriculum where we take the findings of theoretical and research part into account follow the research part