«Public speaking and the pragmatic approach»

Date: 8 October 2026

Subject: Pragmatics of the Russian Language

Course: Year 2, Russian as a Foreign Language

Lecturer: S.R. Sugirbekova

Lesson topic: «Public speaking and the pragmatic approach»

Techniques of Public Speaking’. Students prepared papers and delivered

presentations on the topic ‘Sustainable Development Goals’.

Format: academic conference, defence of papers and

Presentations

Teacher: Sugirbekova S.R.

As part of the lesson on the topic ‘Public speaking and

the pragmatic approach’, an academic conference entitled ‘The Sustainable

Development Goals’ was held, attended by second-year students studying Russian

as a foreign language.

The aim of the conference was to develop students’ public speaking skills in Russian, to enhance their communicative competence, and to apply their knowledge of the pragmatic aspects of spoken communication in practice.

The theme chosen for the presentations was ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. The students independently prepared papers and multimedia presentations focusing on specific aspects of sustainable development. Whilst preparing their presentations, the students searched for and selected the necessary information, organised the material, identified the main idea of their presentation and chose appropriate visual aids.

As part of a pragmatic approach, the students analysed the communicative aim of their presentations, took their intended audience into account and selected appropriate linguistic means. During their presentations, the students demonstrated their ability to present information coherently, justify their position, draw the audience’s attention to key points and answer questions from the audience.

The presentation sessions enabled students to put the public speaking techniques they had learnt into practice: using an introduction to capture the audience’s attention, structuring the main body of the presentation logically, formulating conclusions, utilising non-verbal means of communication, and controlling the pace and intonation of their speech.

Based on the conference outcomes, it can be noted that this type of activity helps to increase the speaking activity of students on the Russian as a Foreign Language course, develop monologue and dialogue skills, expand their vocabulary and build confidence when speaking in front of an audience.

Holding the conference also made it possible to integrate students’ language training with topical social and public issues. Working on the theme of ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ helped to broaden the students’ horizons and develop their ability to use the Russian language meaningfully in academic and professional communication.