WEST UKRAINIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 Professor of the Department of Information and Sociocultural Activities Iryna Shkitska and Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and ICT Tetiana Yurchyshyn successfully completed an international internship in Krakow, participating in the ‘Courses for Polish Language Teachers from Ukraine and Lithuania — Krakow 2025’. The training was organised by the Teacher Training Centre of the Polish Community Association and lasted from 24 to 30 November 2025.

The internship programme was intensive and covered key areas of contemporary Polish studies and methods of teaching Polish as a foreign language. Lectures and practical classes focused on the following topics: phonological competence (the importance of correct pronunciation in communication, effective ways to improve it, pronunciation difficulties encountered by Ukrainians learning Polish were discussed).

Particular attention was paid to the role of speech therapy in the formation of students' phonological competence); syntax and editing (the phenomenon of syntactic synonymy was considered, as well as ways of forming skills in paraphrasing, shortening and expanding messages); didactics and methodology (the specifics of teaching students with different levels of foreign language proficiency were analysed in detail, the role of textbooks in learning Polish was presented, as well as types of ‘prohibited’ exercises); teaching techniques (effective methods of memorising information were discussed, the importance of note-taking in foreign language learning was emphasised, as well as the use of dictionaries as a tool for developing language skills).

Participants from WUNU actively engaged in all organised events, including training sessions, integration and preparatory classes, and exchanged pedagogical experiences with lecturers invited from leading Polish universities, in particular Professors Anna Seretna and Dominika Izdebskaya, Dr Marzena Wawrzyn, Danuta Galiga, and Paulina Wujcik-Topur. A meeting with the Vice-Marshal of the Małopolska Province, Ryszard Pachacz, added even more significance to the courses.

The internship combined the development of methodological knowledge with an introduction to Poland's rich historical and cultural heritage. As part of the cultural programme, organised excursions were held to the Tadeusz Kantor Documentation Centre — the Cricoteka Museum, as well as to Nowa Huta and Zakopane. These events significantly contributed to improving Polish language communication skills in real-life situations, providing an opportunity to become more familiar with Polish culture.

The experience gained during the internship will be implemented in the learning process at West Ukrainian National University to train specialists and write scientific and educational materials on the Polish language and teaching methods.

West Ukrainian National University would like to express its gratitude to Wspólnota Polska, the SWP Teacher Training Centre and the SWP Zdrowie Foundation for organising and financing such an important educational initiative for Polish language teachers from Ukraine.