This course aims to provide students of intermediate and advanced level of English with opportunities to practice presentation skills for academic research purposes through activities and projects common in academic contexts. The course focuses on fostering students’ competences of:
(1) academic discussion for international communication
(2) academic presentation for international conferences
(3) active participation in lab presentation and discussion
(4) persuasion, argumentation and problem-solving
By the end of the course, students are expected to make individualized improvements in the following aspects:
(1) participation in and leading group discussions
(2) sharing information and expressing opinions
(3) communicating with researchers at international conferences and socializing outside of conferences
(4) delivering ppt presentation with more confidence
(5) initiating and persuading others with reasoning
(6) defending individual research
language competence, academic discussion, ppt presentation, reasoning, confidence
Specialist skills | ✔ Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
Each class is divided into four stages, the review, orientation and warming up stage, the lecture and controlled practice stage, and the free and application stage. Students are engaged in active participation in class activities either individually or collaboratively in small groups.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Guidance, Self-introduction, Icebreaking, pre-course survey | Reading the handout on group discussion; Preparing for sharing difficulties of participating in and leading a group discussion in English |
Class 2 | Group discussion skills: active participation and leading | |
Class 3 | Sharing research: summarizing, reporting, interpreting (Review Advanced Writing in Physics) | Exercises on the various types of cognitive thinking and types of questions |
Class 4 | Sharing research: commenting, questioning and evaluating | |
Class 5 | Communication at international conferences: in and out of presentation sessions | Watching TED talks and choosing one to present it to the class (3-5 minutes) |
Class 6 | Reporting and summarizing 1: TED Talks | |
Class 7 | Persuasiveness, argumentation, and presentation strategies: TED Talks | Self-evaluation on body language |
Class 8 | Non-verbal communication, body language, confidence | |
Class 9 | Initiating and propose research ideas/topics | Interviewing senior members of students' labs for past experiences with Ph.D defense |
Class 10 | Presentation for Ph.D defense | |
Class 11 | Topics proposed by students | |
Class 12 | Outlining PPT presentation | Reading academic presentation outlines |
Class 13 | Language characteristics of PPT slides | Reading and analyzing common problems with language used for PPT presentation |
Class 14 | Practicing PPT presentation individually | |
Class 15 | Practicing PPT presentation individually or in groups; | |
Class 16 | Feedback on presentations; End-of-Course Evaluation |
None
To be announced in class
Students are required to keep a high percentage of attendance and to actively participate in class. Creativity and critical thinking are highly encouraged and valued. As cooperative learning is a crucial point of training, students will need to be willing to work with other classmates in various kinds of activities. Student participation and collaboration in class are also part of the final evaluation.
Attendance, attitudes, performance and collaboration with other students in class: 30%
Presentations: 50%
Homework: 20%
Students' self-evaluation and peer evaluation will also be considered.
None