University of Warsaw, Poland >

Dr Magdalena Szpotowicz, ELLiE Project Country Manager

Magdalena Szpotowicz is an assistant professor at the Department Education, School of Early Education, University of Warsaw. She previously worked at the Centre for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education, University of Warsaw. She has been involved in foreign language teacher education for the last 15 years, recently with the focus on educating teachers of young learners. She supervises BA TEFL projects and runs courses on Teaching English to Young Learners.  She also works at the Institute of Educational Research in Warsaw where she supervises research projects connected with foreign language teaching in Polish schools. She is a member of a Thematic Group for Early Language Learning at the European Commission.

She graduated from the Department of English Studies, University of Warsaw where she did her MA (1993) and PhD (2003) in the field of SLA and TEFL. Her research interests include: early foreign language acquisition, foreign language policy changes and young learner teacher development. She has been involved in a number of educational and research projects supported by the British Council, ECML in Graz and the Socrates Agency.  Her main publications include: coursebooks for primary children (OUP), syllabuses approved for school use, and a number of training and research papers published locally and abroad. In 2008 she was appointed by the Minister of Education to head the team developing a new National Curriculum for foreign language education in Poland.

University of Warsaw >

University of Warsaw > is Poland’s largest university. Since the University’s foundation in 1816, it has played a major role in the intellectual, political and cultural life of Poland. UW is internationally recognized as a leading academic centre in this part of Europe.

Dynamic political, social, and economic changes accompanying Poland's democratisation have brought the University new opportunities and challenges. In the years between 1989 and 2005 alone, the student enrolment has more than quadrupled. University of Warsaw has over 55,500 undergraduate and graduate students. It consists of 19 faculties and 25 other research and educational units. Each year about 18,800 young people enroll as students at the University of Warsaw. Their interest in studying at UW results above all from the University's prestige, something UW has earned through the high educational standards it offers and the acknowledged quality of its research.

Centre for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education

Centre for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education is an educational and research unit at the University of Warsaw. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses for pre-service and in-service language teachers. The Centre consists of three Colleges: University College of English Language Teacher Education, University College of German Language Teacher Education and University College of French Teacher Education. The centre educates over 1,000 students. All courses offered by the unit provide full qualifications to teach the foreign languages in primary and secondary schools. The majority of courses taught at the Centre are three-year licenciate studies (BA), which combine good level of philological and vocational training for future teachers. To ensure sound practical preparation for the teaching profession the Centre collaborates closely with over 80 schools in Warsaw.