On the occasion of Science Day, Ushynsky University hosted a vibrant interfaculty scientific and communicative event, Science Slam, “Language and Literature: A Science That Sounds,” which brought together students from the Faculty of History and Philology and the Faculty of Foreign Languages in an exciting intellectual duel.
The topic of the event, conceived as a scientific stand-up, covered a wide range of topical issues in philology, pedagogy, psychology, and intercultural communication — from translation problems, speech aggression, surzhyk, and linguistic thinking to the phenomenon of modern reading, emotional intelligence, pedagogical discoveries, and the influence of foreign languages on cognitive processes. The audience was particularly interested in the speeches on the topics: “How Languages Affect Our Brain,” “Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve,” “A Bridge Between Worlds: How a Translator Becomes an Invisible Director of Film and Cartoons,” and “What Do Fan Fictions Know About Motivation to Read That School Doesn’t?” “Surzhyk: a linguistic catastrophe or folk art?”, “Essay: a small text with a big pedagogical explosion”, “How English can teach you to think like a detective”, “What makes a teacher unforgettable?”, “Why are words more than just a set of letters?”, “Дружина vs Жена: the etymology of mentality”, “Emotional intelligence: a subject missing from the school schedule”, etc. Such thematic diversity testified to the breadth of scientific interests of student youth and their ability to comprehend humanitarian problems through the prism of modern communicative formats.
Science Slam turned an academic performance into a lively, dynamic, emotionally rich dialogue with the audience. Participants had only 7 minutes to not just present a scientific idea, but to make it understandable, convincing and exciting for the audience. That is why the event became not only an intellectual competition, but also a real school of professional speech, oratory skills and public scientific communication.
The format of the scientific stand-up aroused sincere interest among the student youth, because it organically combined science, creativity, critical thinking and the art of speech. For future teachers of literature and translators, such a format is of particular value, as it contributes to the development of communicative competence, the culture of academic oral speech, the ability to adapt complex information to the needs of different audiences, and also forms the skills of publicly presenting one's own ideas - competencies that are extremely important for a modern specialist in the humanities.
A vivid confirmation of the success of the event was the associative map of emotions created by the participants at the end of the event. The words "inspiration", "enthusiasm", "interesting", "creative", "atmospheric", "unforgettable", as well as sincere wishes to make such meetings a good university tradition. This proved that modern formats of popularizing science not only motivate young people to intellectual search, but also create a special space of inspiration, professional growth and lively academic communication.
Science Slam became convincing proof that science can sound modern, dynamic and exciting, and academic communication can be lively, emotional and truly close to young people.
