Phonetic competition of the RUDN Institute of Foreign Languages, devoted to the great British poet William Shakespeare

On April 06, 2016, the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL) held the phonetic competition in the frameworks of “Shakespeare readings”.  “Shakespeare readings” – is the old tradition of the Institute. The organizers are the members of the Oratorical Mastership Club «Words, words, words» which was founded with the establishment of the Institute. This competition became a part of the RUDN IFL program dedicated to the Year of languages and literature of Russia and the Great Britain. In the welcoming speech, the IFL Director and the Chair of the competition jury Prof. Natalia Sokolova noted that to become the carrier of the world knowledge and to participate fully in the process of cross-cultural communication, one should master the linguistic phonetics.

The students of the following specialties took part in the event: «Linguistics», «Foreign regions studies and European studies», «Psycho-Pedagogical education». The students presented various parts from the Shakespeare theatre pieces in the original language («Romeo and Juliette», «Hamlet», «Othello» and others), as well as some popular sonnets. 

The competition jury used three main evaluation criteria: good pronunciation, British accent and artistry/virtuosity in versus reading. During the event, the students got acquainted not only with the works of Shakespeare, but learnt many interesting and unusual facts from the life of the great poet. Short films and some parts of the Shakespeare theatre pieces were proposed for observation. All participants of the event had great pleasure from reading and listening Shakespeare and above that, they opened something new for themselves about the poet. The winners of the first three places of the competition were awarded the book of the poet in English language.