UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
          FACULTY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN 
                    LANGUAGES
          Information for the Preliminary Course in
                CZECH (with Slovak)
                     2011/2012
                      THE PRELIMINARY COURSE
         The Prelims course in “Czech (with Slovak)” is normally devoted entirely to the study of 
         Czech – although a student competent in Slovak may translate from English into Slovak 
         instead of Czech in the examination.
         (An introduction to reading Slovak is provided during the second year.)
         First-year teaching in Czech language and literature – in the form of university lectures, 
         college classes/seminars and tutorials – is coordinated by:
             Dr James D. Naughton (St Edmund Hall)
             University Lecturer in Czech and Slovak
             email: james.naughton@seh.ox.ac.uk
         The timetable of classes in Michaelmas Term will be arranged at a meeting held towards the 
         end of Freshers Week (= Noughth Week).
         Beginners will receive around three hours of intensive Czech language classes per week, 
         and more advanced students will be catered for as appropriate. Students also attend a 
         weekly lecture on Czech literature and a weekly seminar on Czech literary texts. These 
         continue throughout the year. There will also be tutorials for essays on Czech literature; 
         these tutorials are usually held in Hilary and Trinity Terms.
         A number of links to local and outside web resources for students of Czech and Slovak 
         language and literature are provided on the following web pages:
         http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/links.html
         http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/czech.html
         Further details about the papers to be sat in the Preliminary Examination and set texts for 
         literature are given below, followed by an introductory reading list, with recommended 
         dictionaries, textbooks and some background reading.
         Four Czech examination papers are taken by all at the end of the first year (whether 
         beginners or not) as follows:
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         Czech Prelims information for students 2011/12
          PAPERS I AND II: LANGUAGE
          Two language papers are taken in the Preliminary Examination, which is held at the end of 
          the third term. These aim to test the ability to understand and translate straightforward 
          modern Czech prose, active knowledge of elementary grammar, vocabulary and idiom, and 
          basic writing skills. (Oral work is not tested by formal examination at this stage.)
          The level of language work set in the examination primarily aims to cater for ab initio 
          candidates.
          (Any native speaker or relatively advanced student of the language will be set more 
          demanding language work during the year.)
          PAPERS III AND IV: LITERATURE
          Two literature papers are also sat at the end of the year, one devoted to the Czech short 
          story, the other to Czech drama and poetry.
          (The Czech-language texts may be hard to purchase outside the Czech Republic, but 
          sufficient copies of the plays will be available for borrowing from the Taylor Slavonic Library 
          and copies of the short stories and the poem will be supplied in class during the year.)
          In Paper III the focus is on close study of several Czech short stories, using the following set 
          texts:
              Milan Kundera, ‘Falešný autostop’ (from Směšné lásky, 1963-1968)
              Bohumil Hrabal, ‘Pábitelé’ (from the collection Pábitelé, 1964)
              Jan Neruda, ‘Doktor Kazisvět’ (from Povídky malostranské, 1877)
              Ota Pavel, ‘Zlatí úhoři’ (from Jak jsem potkal ryby, 1974)
          For Paper IV we study two twentieth-century plays:
              Karel Čapek, R.U.R. (1920, prem. 1921)
              Václav Havel, Vyrozumění (1966, prem. 1965)
              and the most famous nineteenth-century longer Romantic poem:
              Karel Hynek Mácha, Máj (1836)
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          Czech Prelims information for students 2011/12
         READING LISTS
         The beginners’ language textbook which we are using is:
         James Naughton, Colloquial Czech (Routledge, 2011) – obtain the NEW third edition.
         You are also advised to acquire this basic grammar for reference purposes:
         James Naughton, Czech: an Essential Grammar (Routledge, 2005)
         Some online vocabulary testing material is available here, on WebLearn:
         https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/humdiv/modlang/czech/prelims
         Other useful links are available here:
         http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/links.html
         http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010/czech.html
         Recommended Dictionaries
         You will eventually need to acquire and use more than one dictionary. None covers every 
         requirement for reading and translation. Recommended dictionaries include:
         Josef Fronek, English-Czech Czech-English Dictionary (Anglicko-český a česko-anglický 
         slovník), Prague: Leda, 1998 etc.; handy noun tables, less good for verb aspectual pairs.
         Ivan Poldauf et al., Anglicko-český česko-anglický slovník, various editions, 1073 pp.; older 
         but useful two-way dictionary with good information on aspectual pairs.
         Ivan Poldauf, Velký česko-anglický slovník, WD Publications, Čelákovice / Hippocrene 
         Books, New York, 1188 pp.; various printings, very useful larger Czech-English volume, very 
         good for identifying aspectual pairs.
         Josef Fronek, Velký česko-anglický slovník, Prague: Leda, 2000, 1597 pp.; another newer 
         large Czech-English dictionary.
         Josef Fronek, Velký anglicko-český slovník, Praha: Leda, 2006; similar in size to the 
         preceding.
         This single-volume monolingual dictionary is also very useful for examples of usage:
         Josef Filipec et al., Slovník spisovné češtiny pro školu a veřejnost, Prague: Academia, 1994 
         etc. (2nd ed.)
         + phrase-books etc. e.g. Berlitz, Collins, BBC, Rough Guide, Oxford Photo Dictionary.
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         Czech Prelims information for students 2011/12