News

Marina Chashko, HSE Master’s program student, - a delegate of the first University Model United Nations in Venice (VeUMUN 2016)

On Tuesday, May 19, 2016 the United States Embassy in Moscow hosted a Young Professionals Roundtable discussion with Assistant Secretary, Victoria Nuland, and Ambassador in the Russian Federation, John F. Tefft. The purpose of the meeting was to gather a distinguished group of young Russian leaders representing a broad array of disciplines to discuss current challenges and opportunities in the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship.

Five Russian teachers of English, including Aida Rodomanchenko as a representative of HSE, were lucky to have been selected for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) entitled ‘Understanding America through its Educational System: Practical Applications for Russian EFL’, which was administered by Cultural Vistas and conducted from April 11 to 19, 2016.The program aimed at receiving a holistic view of a broader cross-section of American society, understanding what educational opportunities are available to American students from different backgrounds, learning how the U.S. system of life-long learning works, meeting with American curriculum specialists, high school and university teachers of English, and exploring key elements of America.The journey started on April 10, straight after the TESOL Convention, from exploring New Orleans.

On April 5, 2016, Andy Curtis, the 50th president of TESOL International Association, opened the Convention. His welcoming talk was followed by an opening keynote presentation by Aziz Abu Sarah, the executive director at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution. His talk inspired the audience and made every person in the room believe that everything is possible if we step out of our comfort zone, learn about other cultures, overcome stereotypes, introduce experiential education and challenge our students to learn outside the classroom and gain experience as well as knowledge.

The HSE Department of Foreign Languages is going to hold a festival "The Man for All Times",  dedicated to William Shakespeare and the UK-Russia Year of Language and Literature. A series of events including lectures, seminars, workshops, competitions, film discussions and visiting theatre performances will take place. An interactive quest "The Shakespeare Path" is about to be held in April. On February, 11 a distinguished MSU Professor Irina L. Kukuryan delivered a lecture "Who was Mr. Shakespeare?" to the students of "Foreign Languages and Cross-Cultural Communication" undergraduate programme.

The HSE Department of Foreign Languages has hosted a 3-day seminar "Establishing Effective Writing Centers" - an intensive series of workshops and presentations which was held in Moscow on November 30 - December 2, 2015. The seminar was devoted to building strong links between Russian Academic Writing Centres and focused on their ways of their developement. The participants have come from various regions of Russia to attend lectures, seminars, workshops and presentations. The key trainers were an EFL specialist Eve Smith and Professor from Skolkovo Ivan Eubanks.

Our translation agency was established in 2015 on the basis of the Department of Foreign Languages. Its team consists of students of the MA program "Foreign Languages ​​and Intercultural Communication" in the Higher School of Economics. Translation Agency of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​unite not only students with philological and linguistic education, experience in translation and editorial work, but also those who want to try themselves as  translators and gain first experience in this field.

A HSE team of linguists taking a master program “Foreign Languages and Cross-Cultural Communication” participated in the English Grammar Festival “Cambridge Grammar Fest 2015”. The team “Union Jack” was created by the most active and committed HSE representatives: Marina Chashko, Ekaterina Borisova, Mehrangez Burieva, Madina Davlatova, Sofia Esipova, Anastasia Kohanik and Tahmina Mirzoevaled by the head of the “Foreign Languages and Cross-Cultural Communication” master program – Galina Nikolaevna Gumovskaya.   

Teacher training seminars (27 Oct 2015-28 Oct 2015) were organized by prof. Elena Velikaya on ‘Teaching the oral skills in English’. The instructor, Robin Walker, who is a specialist in oral skills development  focused on teaching pronunciation issues on the 1^st day and speaking skills development – on the 2^nd day. 

The HSE Department of Foreign Languages in cooperation with the US Embassy has organized a full time training course on elaboration of test materials for the standardized state exams in English. The session took place from 30 June to 4 July 2015 and was held by Dr. Christine Coombe, the former TESOL president and specialist in standardized testing.