Students of School of Foreign Languages Speak at the International Conference in Berlin

In late November, students from the School of Foreign Languages presented their research at the International Linguistics Conference for Students (StuTS).

Victoria Bogomolova (4th year of bachelor’s FLaIC programme)
The organizers definitely gave this event as much as they possibly could. The platform that they provided to presenters allows anyone to listen to lectures by students from all over the world, and ask questions in real time. There are several languages of presentations to choose from: English, German, and Spanish. My speech was in English. The topic of my paper is "Internet slang in sexist statements: a comparative analysis of Russia and the United States". As part of the research, comments from Facebook users from 2015 to 2020 were analyzed.
While the topic was initially my suggestion, my academic supervisor, Yulia Chernenko, helped me correct and interpret it in a better way. I wanted to implement everything that I had managed to study within the Interdisciplinary Media Research  course. For example, I aimed to conduct content analysis or a focus group survey. Unfortunately, we had to abandon the focus group option in favour of an online survey due to the pandemic. And since Yulia Alexandrovna was my guide to the world of media, it was very exciting for me to work with her and learn from her experience. Moreover, Professor Chernenko took part in compiling a dictionary of Russian Internet slang! I think that the topic I have chosen is particularly relevant not only because of sexism, which is the main focus, but also because of the Internet slang. Slang is a border that separates generations, a unit of language that is constantly changing. It enters and exits our active vocabulary quite rapidly. My paper includes a discourse analysis and consists of approximately 70 pages, but it was extremely interesting to analyze comments. Even though sometimes everything that was written seemed obvious
 
Albina Prohodina (4th year of bachelor’s FLaIC programme)
I have always been thrilled by language from the point of view of its tremendous socio-cultural significance. My 15-year-long journey of learning English has allowed me to examine many features of intercultural interaction in a completely new way. After studying for a semester on an exchange programme in London, I realized how narrow our understanding even of the most basic language structures is. It is now obvious to me that accents and their phonetic structure require a comprehensive study. The reason for this is that linguistic preferences in British society are changing rapidly, and courses of English phonetics are often based on outdated traditions. That is why I started to wonder about the relevance of the traditional British accent. This is the "standard" English we know from old records, movies, and speeches given by British traditionalists. Having taken the evolution of accents within the BBC as an example, I went on to examine the "democratization of phonetic preferences" in modern British society and confirm the "obsolescence" of language conservatism. This is the research I presented at the conference. I received feedback and comments from researchers from all over the world, motivating me to continue working, and I was once again convinced that the main source of scientific knowledge is collaboration and the continued exchange of experience among researchers of all ages.
I would also like to express my special gratitude to my academic supervisor, Ksenia Vasilyuk, for helping me work on this research project.
Arina Silinskaya (4th year of bachelor’s FLaIC programme)
I am currently in the senior year of the educational programme on Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication. When deciding upon my path of education, I chose Intercultural Business Communication  simply because I wanted to learn how to effectively use the language for its core purpose, which is communication. That is why my paper, which I presented at the conference, is directly related to cultural concepts, one of the key notions of cultural studies and intercultural communication. During my research, I focused on studying and analyzing the main cultural concepts of the Russian and American national characters, as well as the ways they are represented in modern academic discourse. I spent the second semester of my 3rd year on the academic mobility programme at San Diego State University, USA. So, my personal experience in an unusual academic climate was one of the reasons I chose this field of research. My academic supervisor, Ksenia Vasilyuk, also helped me with choosing the direction of my paper and organising its structure. During the presentation of my paper at the conference, there were a lot of interesting and topical questions. The audience also challenged some points I made in my speech, which has helped to ensure I continue studying in this field.
 
Anastasiya Grigoryeva (FLaIC 2020 graduate, now 1st year of master’s programme Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity)
In 2020, I graduated from the Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication bachelor's program in HSE with honours. Now I’m continuing my studies at HSE, which has become like a second home to me. I am working towards a master's degree on the Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity programme. My professional interests are critical discourse analysis, media research, sociolinguistics, and intercultural communication.
My paper is dedicated to identifying and analyzing manipulative strategies and tactics when describing protest movements in English-language mass media. With the help of the aforementioned techniques, news sources are able to influence their audience's perception and opinion. In particular, I have been researching the representation of one of the most notable protest movements of recent times — the yellow vests movement in France — in such newspapers as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Irish Independent, and others. My methodology was based on the principles of critical discourse analysis designed by Norman Fairclough and Christopher Hart. The data obtained during the course of my studies can act as a foundation for further research into the representation of protest movements in discourse, media research, and other disciplines.
 
Elizaveta Kryukova (FLaIC 2020 graduate, now 1st year of master’s programme Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity)
This year I successfully graduated from HSE and received a bachelor's degree in linguistics. My main field of studies was Intercultural Business Communication. I’m now continuing my studies at HSE and currently pursuing a master's degree in the field of language policy. My main research interests include intercultural communication, conflict management, and English language in business communication.
My work examines the problem of cultural diversity in organizations as a possible source of intercultural business conflict. The aim of this research is to develop materials for an online-course designed to help entrepreneurs deal with intercultural organizational conflicts quickly and effectively. We hope that the materials will be used for creating a blended online course on a platform such as Coursera. The course is designed for people studying intercultural communication, as well as increasing the cultural awareness of entrepreneurs.  
 
Anastasiya Zybcovets (4th year of bachelor’s FLaIC programme)
I am a senior student of the FLaIC programme. I chose the Translation and Interpreting Studies  track, and I am interested in studying all aspects related to translation. At the conference, I decided to give a talk about the problem of machine translation. It was very gratifying to hear a lot of questions after my speech because this means that the topic was interesting for the audience. I touched upon the burning issue of the potential for developing machine translation. There is still no consensus on what the future holds for translators, and that is why I wanted to conduct research of my own. As part of my research, I analyzed how online translation services work and compared their translations with those made by human translators. As a result, I came to the conclusion that machine translation will not be able to completely replace humans in the next 10 years. However, if we work on the translations together, it will accelerate the process without any significant loss in quality, which is exactly what translators have been trying to achieve all this time.
 
Elena Chuldina (4th year of bachelor’s FLaIC programme)
The Intercultural Business Communication  course awoke my interested in studying corporate communication and the way men and women interact within it. My presentation at the conference was devoted to this topic. For me, the most important, and probably the most pleasing, aspect of participating in the event was the feedback. During the Q&A session, I was able to look at the issue of gender in corporate communication from another perspective, to see it through the eyes of people from other countries and cultural backgrounds. It provided me with new ways to develop my research in the future.