The Department of Foreign Languages dates back to 1921, when the Minsk Medical Institute was established. At that time, it was the Department of the German Language.
German was taught in the 1st and 2nd years: 90 and 80 hours, respectively. At the end of each semester, students took a credit.
The heads of the department in different periods were:
From 1921 to 1923 Georgy Ernestovich Lands
1923 - 1930 Pezold Egor Emilievich
1930 - 1941 Golash Mkhta Yulievna
1943 - 1945 Platner-Rutstein Dora Ilyinichna acted as head of the Department of Foreign Languages in Yaroslavl.
1945 - 1953 Galberstand Esfir Yakovlevna.
1953-1976 Bondar Sofia Naumovna
1976-1977 Zhigalo Galina Fedorovna acted as head of the Department of Foreign Languages
1977-1993 Sharanda Galina Iosifovna
1994-2001 Volmyanskaya Olga Andreevna
Since 2001 Petrova Marina Nikolaevna
In the post-war years, the main directions of the scientific and methodological work of the department were the issues of methods of translation from a foreign language into a native language and teaching grammatical phenomena.
From the late 50s to the mid-80s. the department was actively working on the problems of teaching a foreign language at the medical university. Dictionaries and textbooks were published aiming at the skills of translating authentic texts both with and without the use of a dictionary, teaching and improving grammatical skills.
Since the mid-80s, teaching a foreign language has moved to a new level, and more and more attention was paid to the development of students' speaking skills. At practical lessons and during students’ independent work, the audio-visual technology was used: pictures, tables, filmstrips, tape recordings and educational films. In the second year, students took an exam, which tested their skills of translating texts with a dictionary, uninterrupted understanding of the text (without a dictionary) based on answers to the examiner's questions, as well as practical speaking skills (retelling).
Since the late 90-ies and early 2000s due to changes in the political and economic situation in the country and the world, approaches to foreign language education and teaching a foreign language have changed. English has become a language of international communication, its cultural and integrating value is recognized. Of particular importance is the problem of training specialists for intercultural communication and professional interaction with foreign colleagues.
The current activity of the Department of Foreign Languages is aimed at international cooperation and integration processes in various spheres of life, introduction of computer technologies, rapid development of digitalization of society, and human involvement in new communication practices.
The tasks of the department at the present stage are related to the preparation of a competent specialist who should be able to:
- independently navigate in a foreign-language information professional space,
- analyze, critically comprehend, summarize and present the information obtained,
- carry out professional interaction with colleagues internationally,
- share the achievements of science, practical medicine and pharmacy,
- make presentations in English at international scientific conferences.
An important condition for improving the educational process at the department is the introduction of electronic teaching aids, which accelerate the transfer of knowledge and contribute to the information competence of the future specialist, have a wide range of didactic opportunities aimed at enhancing the cognitive activity of students, disclosing and improving their personal qualities, strengthening educational autonomy, increasing productivity of the educational process in a foreign language..