This course will be given twice, in Term II and Term IV. It is intended for M2 and doctoral students, as well as for postdoctoral staff and junior faculty members. The aim of the course is to provide you with the skills and confidence required to speak effectively, in English, at international scientific meetings.
We will look in more depth at the topics covered in 'Methods of English Communication II': clarity and smoothness of speech, and the relation between what the audience sees on the screen and hears as you speak. Additional topics will be the importance of constructing a presentation that can be delivered in a fixed time period, and how to deal comfortably with questions from the audience.
You will be asked to prepare an oral presentation, of 10-15 minutes' duration, based on your own research. This will be a gradual process - each week you will prepare some new slides to present during the classes, so that in the final class you will be able to present a completed talk. The classes will therefore be a mixture of presentation and discussion, and you will be encouraged to comment constructively about one another's work.
