English for Academic Conferences and Presentations – ZIP

ogólnouniwersyteckie

Participation in the course is conditional on filling out and signing the participant’s declaration during the first class. Resigning from participation in course of the semester entails a refund of ZIP registration tokens used for course enrolment.

Also, the prospective participants need to be fairly proficient in English, at the minimum level of B2+.

English for Academic Conferences and Presentations is a 30-hour practical course aimed at developing speaking skills in English by involving participants in a series of realistic oral tasks facing every doctoral student, including presenting one’s academic career, thesis, and current research or competing for a research grant. Thanks to a task-based approach, the participants will have an opportunity to improve their academic English and train the relevant speaking skills by practicing them in a friendly yet critical environment.

The course is offered under the ZIP program, co-funded from the EU Social Fund. The rules for participating in general academic courses for doctoral students offered within the ZIP program are available at: www.zip.uw.edu.pl

The main objective of the English for Academic Conferences and Presentations course is to provide an opportunity to practice productive oral skills, needed for presenting academic, scientific and research information in conference and grant application situations. The course offers its participants the chance to develop these skills by doing, that is, by participating in a series of realistic, communicative tasks in the safety of the classroom, where individual performance is co-graded by the teacher and fellow students. The course also seeks to improve the participants’ overall proficiency and fluency in spoken English by providing the language and formats used to describe one’s academic work and achievements.

The course addresses the need of doctoral students and future academics to competently provide and discuss scientific and research information in typical information-exchange situations, like conferences and grant application competitions.

It offers a chance to develop the required oral skills in Academic English and practice providing scientific and research information in a friendly, classroom environment. While practicing these communication skills, the participants will also become better listeners and consumers of academic communication.

The course teacher is an experienced university teacher of English, specializing in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Her previous contribution to the ZIP program included such courses as: Academic Public Speaking in English, Public Speaking for Research Purposes, Academic Discussions and Debates, which also focused on productive oral skills.

Various articles, video tutorials and presentation examples uploaded to the Kampus learning platform.

After completing the course, the participant will be able to:

• present their academic interests and career development in conference or project settings;

• present their written academic work, such as an article or a thesis, in a concise and engaging manner;

• describe their research project as worthy of funding in grant application situations;

• answer and manage questions from the audience following an academic presentation;

• summarize another participant’s academic presentation and ask valid questions related to it;

• use English for academic purposes more confidently and effectively thanks to classroom practice.

Term grade, based on task performance, attendance and class participation.

Course credit is awarded for completing the 4 practical oral tasks and 2 graded home assignments, as well as sufficient attendance and class participation. Participants must obtain at least 60% of all available points to pass the course. Term grades are awarded based on the following scale: 60-68% satisfactory (3), 69-76% satisfactory + (3+), 77-84% good (4), 85-92% more than good (4+), 93-100% very good (5).