News

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.

From April 10-14, 2015, Manchester (UK) hosted the 49 th  annual IATEFL conference. About 3,000 delegates attended the conference, and over 400 presentations were given.  English-language coordinator at the HSE’s International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF) Elena Velikaya gave a talk entitled  Teaching English at an Economic University: Looking for New Perspectives .

From March 24-28, 2015, Toronto (Canada) hosted the TESOL 2015 International Convention and English Language Expo. It drew more than 5,600 professionals from 91 countries who planned to cross borders and build bridges. There were more than 1,000 academic sessions offered in Toronto. Aida Rodomanchenko, head of learning and teaching office at the academic department of foreign languages at the HSE was the only speaker from Russia. Her talk was entitled Roundtable discussion as an alternative to a traditional oral examination.