Participants of HSE LED Conference Discuss Progress in Linguistics and Pedagogy
On April 20–21, the HSE School of Foreign Languages held the V International Scientific and Practical Conference ‘Languages. Education. Development’ (HSE LED). It was organised in an online format and dedicated to current trends in the development of modern knowledge in linguistics and pedagogy. Over two days, about 1,700 participants (including more than 220 speakers) took part in the event— 40% more than in the previous academic year.
The participants were primarily representatives of universities, colleges, schools, EdTech, and the language-education business community . Different regions of Russia and thirteen countries (up from seven last year) were represented at the conference, including China, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and the United States.
As in previous years, the conference focused on three key areas: languages (issues of fundamental and applied linguistics, translation and translation studies, intercultural communication), education (discussion of the theory and practice of teaching foreign languages, Russian as a foreign language), and development (dynamics, vectors of development and innovations in the language education system, including the use of AI).
Ekaterina Kolesnikova
Opening the conference, Ekaterina Kolesnikova, Head of the School of Foreign Languages, expressed hope that it would be productive and inspiring, and that the discussions would be interesting and diverse. She moderated the plenary session on translation studies in the age of AI, axiological linguistics, and teaching Russian at foreign universities.
Omar Lobos, Professor at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), noted that Russian literary language has retained more signs of oral language than Western languages, as reflected in poetry, which still sticks to its intonation and accentuated rhythm. ‘This aspect cannot be ignored while translating,’ he stressed.
Elena Moshnyaga
In her report, Elena Moshnyaga, Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, focused on axiological linguistics: inter-, cross-, and transcultural communication through the prism of value-based worldviews. She examined communication processes in terms of value orientations, including interaction between representatives of different linguistic cultures.
According to Rafael Guzmán Tirado, Professor at the University of Granada (Spain), there is renewed interest in Russian literature (and therefore language) in the Spanish-speaking world. There has been a surge in the number of translations by Russian-speaking authors, and a new generation of translators is emerging. Demand is growing not only for classics, but also for modern literature, which provides the key to understanding the modern realities of life in Russia.
Vitaly Nuriev, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, closed the session with his report on literary translation in the era of large language models. Speaking on changes in translation tools and the principles of translation ethics, he linked the main ethical problem to the choice between low price and speed and the desire to preserve the artistic uniqueness of the translated text.
Over 170 online events took place during the two days of the conference.
Alexandra Nagornaya
Prof. Alexandra Nagornaya moderated the round table ‘Precedent Name in Modern Communication Practices.’ The participants discussed the use of precedent names in modern communication practices, a significant part of which unfolds in the digital environment. ‘In the new communicative conditions, the precedent names we are familiar with are undergoing various transformations. They are reinterpreted, acquire new, often ironic, shades of meaning, and are used in functions and contexts that are not typical,’ she said.
The conference covered not only research issues, but also applied problems related, for example, to the practice of translation.
Maxim Berendyaev
Maxim Berendyaev, Chief Operating Officer and First Deputy General Director at the AKM Translation Agency, Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, gave a presentation on the history and main provisions of the Association of Translation Companies Standard for Automatic Text Generation in Professional Translation. The title of the updated version of this document is ‘Non-Human Text Generation for Augmented Professional Translation and Interpretation Services (TM, MT, LLM). Standard of the Russian Association of Translation Companies.’
Many foreign-language teachers from schools and colleges took part in the conference. In addition to information about the latest achievements in linguistic and pedagogical science, they got acquainted with HSE projects for teachers, including the Teacher–Partner project, which enables the university to directly interact with teachers from different regions. Speakers included HSE Deputy Vice Rector Kirill Sorvin and teachers involved in the project. Another project is the University Educational District, which was outlined by Irina Rezanova, Deputy Director of the Prospective Students Office at HSE University.
As in previous years, the Prosveshcheniye publishing house was represented at the conference. Irina Temnova, Head of Department at the Centre of Linguistic Education at JSC Prosveshcheniye Publishers, Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Prosveshcheniye. Foreign Languages, moderated the round table ‘Career-Oriented Teaching of Foreign Languages to Students of the Secondary Professional Education.’ Speakers included other representatives of the publishing house, including authors of textbooks, as well as teachers of foreign languages at schools and colleges.
Anna Korovko
Expert interviews are another traditional part of the HSE LED conference. This time, Nadezhda Vradiy, Deputy Head of the School of Foreign Languages, interviewed Anna Korovko, Senior Director for Full Degree Programmes at HSE University. They spoke on HSE’s educational model and the principles of education management. Anna Korovko, in particular, talked about the study of English at HSE—a requirement for all undergraduates at the university.
‘Our students study English as part of a separate module using a special teaching and assessment methodology during their bachelor's programmes, regardless of their major. Physicists, programmers, and designers should have this additional qualification. We want our graduates to be competitive compared to graduates of other universities, who may not be able to study English at this level,’ said Anna Korovko.
The methodology for assessing English language proficiency was discussed at the round table ‘Language Monitoring and Assessment in Russian Universities: Problems, Solutions, and Prospects,’ moderated by Daria Klykova, project manager of the Linguatest project at the Prosveshchenie publishing house. The participants analysed the experience of various universities.
According to Dina Anisimova, Head of the Expert Centre for English Certification, the HSE independent exam includes four sections: reading, listening (objective assignments), writing, and speaking (a more open-ended assignment format). ‘The exam is held at all university campuses basically every day during the academic year, from April to March. A total of 7,129 students took it during the cycle that ended in March this year,’ she added.
The representatives of the School of Foreign Languages would like to express their gratitude to all the participants of the conference and will be glad to see their colleagues at the VI Conference in 2027.