One more group of employees at PJSC "Sumy NPO", one of the leading European engineering complexes in manufacturing equipment for oil, gas, atomic and fine-chemical processing industry, has passed the course on Business English and improved the skills of speaking a foreign language. Managers from the sales department enriched their vocabulary in Business English and practiced speaking English on Business themes.

The course is organised and supported by the Linguistic Center of the Foreign Languages Department of Sumy State University. The lecturer of the course is Alla Diadechko.

The learners are looking forward to the next course in the next year.

The Foreign languages department hosted teacher training sessions for school and university teachers of Sumy and Sumska oblast. The lectures and trainers were native speakers, Peace Corps volunteers who work at schools, universities and community development projects of Sumska oblast. Directors of the Teacher Camp Excite were Benjamin Stewart and Lauren Grubbs. Lecturers and trainers – Glenn Anderson, Laurens Kahn, Aaron Kennet, Jaclyn White, Katherine Menzies. The topics covered included motivation, communicative methodology, working with different skill levels, classroom management techniques, academic integrity etc. Such events are crucial in case of artificial foreign language environment. Ongoing updating of new approaches to learning foreign languages, adjustment to modern life is under serious consideration for nowadays education.

The training Young WIT (Young Women in Tech) was held at the department of Foreign languages. Its purpose was to develop leadership qualities of young women and get them involved into the world of technology. The project was implemented thanks to the grant got from The Peace Corps by the Foreign languages department. The training Young WIT is a part of a larger project “Let Girls Learn”.

The moderator of the training is Benjamin Geoffrey Stewart who has been teaching English at the Foreign languages department for a year. The coordinator is the head of the Foreign languages department of Sumy State University, Associate Professor Halyna Lytvynenko.

The participants were high school girls form different secondary schools of Sumy. The girls discussed the issues on the roles of men and women in the society and the family, advantages and disadvantages of being a female politician, presented their own points of view on the future of women in our country, found out the difference between gender and sex. Besides that, they got some knowledge on the foundations of Web Design, learnt how to create and edit videos and produced their own ones that reveal different sides of women’s’ lives, tried to compile their own mobile applications. The technical support for creating IT products was provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lauren Grubbs, a volunteer from the Peace Corps, helped to make use of this software. The participants of the training got an opportunity to communicate with Brennan Cornell via Skype who works as a technical consultant at Deloy LLC (USA).

The languages of the project were English and Ukrainian and all the girls were fluent in them.

The instructors of The Foreign Languages Department Alla Diadechko and Svitlana Mikhno participated in the English Forum for English teachers “Education for the New Generation: Teaching and Learning in the Fresh new way”. The event was organised by Pearson Learning Company, D’Internal Books and Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. Specialists from Great Britain, Ukraine and Poland delivered their reports at the Forum. Discussions on different questions and debates on modern English teaching approaches of today and the future were ongoing during two days.

Alla Diadechko and Svitlana Mikhno shared their experience of teaching English using online resources at Sumy State University. The forum provided a unique opportunity to demonstrate Ukrainian achievements and exchange opinions with colleagues who are practicing English teachers from Great Britain, Japan and Poland.

Camp EXCITE’s Colors of Diversity weekend was another success for the Sumy region! On October 21-22, local students gathered at School No. 2 to take part in everything from finger-painting to deep discussions about multiculturalism and intersectionality. The counselors came from all over Ukraine and talked about many aspects of diversity including gender, language, culture, race, and ethnicity. Many of them were returnees from the summer Camp EXCITE, including the instructor of the Foreign languages department Ben Stewart. The campers brought a lot of energy and eagerness to learn, and the organizers are thankful for their great attitude! There are two more camps in the works (January – Teachers’ Camp EXCITE, April – Kids’ Camp EXCITE).

The instructors of the Foreign languages department Inna Zaitseva and Svitlana Mikhno participated int the work of All Ukrainian Summer “Academic English For Global Audience” that took place at Lesia Ukrainka Eastern European National University (the city of Lutsk).

The invited lecturers to the school were:

• The author of “English – Ukrainian – Russian Thesaurus Dictionary of Academic Clichés”, professor Svitlana Zhabotynska, Cherkasy National University;
• The director of Center for English Academic Communication, professor Tetiana Yakhontova, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv;
• Expert on the problems of English Academic Speaking and Writing, assistant professor Yaroslava Fedoriv, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”;
• The member of the editorial board of the “International Journal of Social Science Studies”, Professor Malgozhata Khaladevich-Gzheliak, Technoogy University (Opole, Poland);
• The trainer of The British Council Project “Researcher Connect” for young scientists, assistant professor Iryna Mykhailova and others.

The participants of the school covered the following themes:

• Academic English for a Global Audience: goals, objectives, tools, methodology etc.
• Thesaurus Dictionary of Academic Clichés and Its Application in the Language Classroom
• English – Ukrainian – Russian Thesaurus Dictionary of Academic Clichés
• Thesaurus Dictionary as a Platform for Academic Writing
• A Scholarly Paper: From authentic vocabulary to authentic perspectivization
• English Academic Language and Style
• English Research Paper in Linguistics: General Considerations and Typical Structure
• Rhetorical Analysis
• Principles of Summarizing, Annotating and Abstracting External Sources
• Plagiarism Prevention in Academic Papers
• Research Paper in Linguistics: Reaching the audience

Other photos - https://elearning.sumdu.edu.ua/s/49-f7d

Open badminton championship of Mykolaivska oblast among veterans and amateurs of sport took place on September 7-10. The instructor of the Foreign languages department Oksana Hladchenko and the instructor of the Physical Education department Antonina Siryk took the golden medal in the age category 45+ and the third place in the age category 20+. And Oksana alone took the silver medal in her age category. We wish our sportsmen further achievements.

The instructor of the Foreign languages department Svitlana Mikhno took part in the Global International Scientific Analytical Project provided by International Academy of Science and Higher Education. She prepared her research for the II stage of the championship in Educational sciences National Research Analytics Championship of Ukraine held from June 23 till June 29, 2017 in London (UK). Branch: Educational sciences – "Innovative processes in education’’.

One more initiative of the Foreign languages department is English Day Summer Camp held by Benjamin Jeoffrey Stewart at Sumy State University (June 14-21). The participants of the camp explored the following themes through a mix of short lectures, activities, and discussions:

• Wednesday, June 14th: Opening Ceremony, International Activity Day
• Thursday, June 15th: American Culture
• Friday, June 16th: Volunteering / Civic Activism
• Monday, June 19th: Leadership and Success!
• Tuesday, June 20th: Quest / Sports Day
• Wednesday, June 21st: Ukrainian University Life, Closing Ceremony

We thank Benjamin and other speakers of this camp for interesting speeches and discussions: students Daryna Denysenko, Andrii Kryshtop, Kateryna Halustian, Dmytro Shvachko, an instructor Alla Mykolaivna Diadechko, Peace Corps volunteers Omar Bartos, Benjamin Stewart and Jada, EVS Volunteer from Center for European Initiatives Ruben Van Der Mark, an artist Lily Kavliuk, a user interface designer Artem Oberland and others. 

Seniour instructor of the Foreign languages department Nina Maliovana participated in the training “Internationalisation as a Tool to Develop the Leadership Potential of a University” which was held under the project by TEMPUS “Education for Leadership, Intelligence and Talent Evolution ELITE”.  The event took part at the Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv) and the following topics were covered:

• Internationalisation of Higher Education and Leadership;
• Complex Strategy of the Internationalization of a University; Key Principles of the Development and Self-evaluation of the Quality of its Implementation;
• Implementation of the Programmes on Dual Joint Degrees: World Experience.

Nina Maliovana underlined that she came back with new ideas to be implemented while teaching English.