Between 19 and 23 June, the 16th Summer Linguistic School for students of forms 9–11 took place at the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology of VSU. The event, which was held offline, brought together about 50 secondary and high school students from the Krasnodar Territory and the Voronezh Region: Voronezh, Novovoronezh, Novaya Usman, Ramon, Rossosh, Pavlovsk, Liski, Ertil, Podgornoye, and Semiluki.
Over the past 16 years, about 1,350 schoolchildren have become students of the Summer Linguistic School. This year, a student module was launched within the project. The Summer Linguistic School includes lectures by leading professors, associate professors, and lecturers of the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology and practical classes held by students. The master classes were devoted to foreign languages and translation practice. All in all, 11 VSU staff members and 14 students took part in the school.
During the lectures, the students learned facts about the countries whose languages are studied at the faculty. The guests of the Summer Linguistic School learnt about skills required of translators and interpreters, about digital humanities and how this discipline can be useful to a linguist. The lecturers told the participants about the peculiarities of the cultural geography of Great Britain and about how the knowledge of the French language can help you when working in African countries. They also had a chance to learn about the life of the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology and its structure.
This year, a significant part of the classes for schoolchildren was developed and held by students from the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology. During the master classes, students practiced speaking English using songs and films and tried to write a mini-saga in English. The guests of the event learned about the Victorian language of flowers, practiced different aspects of translation and skills of public speech. They were also taught life hacks which can be used to revise for exams, created their own chatbot, and tried on the role of forensic linguists.
The children learnt about foreign languages that they did not study at school (Spanish, Italian, French, German, Swedish, Latin, and Chinese). They took part in starter lessons in these languages. Also, the Summer Linguistic School included lessons for students who already had some knowledge of German and French.
During the final event, Elena Dyakova, the Head of the Summer Linguistic School and Associate Professor at the Department of English Philology, congratulated the schoolchildren on completing the summer school. She wished the children every success in learning languages and expressed hope that she would meet them again at the faculty. Student activists concluded the results of the tasks which the participants had completed during the Summer Linguistic School and awarded the winners with gifts and certificates.
The guests of the project praised the friendly, sincere, and warm atmosphere at the faculty and the generosity and professionalism of the teachers. According to schoolchildren, they learned a lot of new things and met a lot of new interesting people. School graduates made up their minds about their future career, university, and faculty, and students from forms 8–10 promised to visit the school next year.
“During the lectures, I learnt more about other languages: passionate and brisk Spanish, sophisticated French, firm and decisive German, and many other languages. In addition to English, I chose German and Chinese. During this project, I gained new knowledge and practiced new skills. But more than that, I experienced something that student life can’t do without: I made friends and met like-minded people united by the goal of discovering the world of languages every day.
I would like to thank the students and lecturers of the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology who gave lectures at the summer school. They managed to create an atmosphere which is favourable both for studying and discussion. Each of them is a great professional in their field. Semper in motu (“Always in motion”) is the motto of VSU, and I will do my best to always follow it!” said Vladislava Selutina, a participant of the project and a 10th grade student of Gymnasium No. 2.
