Academic Speaking & Listening (Science & Technology)
This course is to introduce you to the concept and practices of seminars at British universities and to help you improve your both your speaking and listening skills by focusing on typical features of pronunciation (e.g. intonation and connected speech) and patterns of discourse expected in a science/technology academic context.
Listening and note-taking skills will be covered and you will also practise giving your opinions, participating in discussions and giving short presentations.
Tutors use a variety of source materials related to Science, Technology and Medicine, including video- and cassette-recorded lectures and discussions.
Fixed `core´ syllabus: 50% Negotiated syllabus: 50%.
Negotiation should take place around Week 5.
LEARNING OUTCOMESAt the end of the course, you should have improved the following Listening Skills:
- Recognising sentences and joined-up speech
- Following a lecture
- Following developmental changes or sequences (i.e. change over time)
- Hearing and noting down dates, numbers, spellings, and other forms of data (e.g. percentages, temperatures etc.)
- Identifying and understanding speculative/tentative language
- Distinguishing between important and unimportant data
- Taking effective notes
- Inferring meaning
- Recognising speaker opinion in discussions
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this course, you should have improved the following Speaking Skills:
- pronouncing science/technology/medical subject keywords more clearly
- using pauses and intonation appropriately
- initiating discussion
- seeking opinions & ensure all group members are included in the discussion
- offering opinions, agree/disagree, use formal & informal register
- using indirect questions in discussion
- justifying & explaining decisions
- reporting group discussions to whole class
- introducing your subject (purpose & structure of presentation)
- sequencing & signposting
- clarifying, confirming and interrupting
- rephrasing & reformulating
- describing statistics, tables, figures etc.
- creating & using handouts
- introducing the members of the group & their roles
- handing over
- fielding questions