996013 Academic English: Oral Presentations and Conference Language (WS) (SoSe 2011)

This workshop has a double purpose, one academic, the second concerning more general social and language skills.

The academic part is about making talks or presentations at meetings or conferences. This involves for example delivery technique as well as choosing a clear structure; introducing and ending a topic and moving on to the next; referring to research; giving examples; finding an arresting beginning and conclusion; the ability to contribute to scholarly discussions and chair a question and answer session; and finally listening and note taking.
These aspects will be dealt with both in theory and practice: participants are expected to deliver a presentation of their own and to accept feedback from the course leaders and the other members of the workshop.
Conferences do not consist only of academic discussions – the social, more informal conversations and discussions outside the official lectures etc. are no less important – very likely even more so - for networking and making contacts. Also, this presents often more difficulties to non-native speakers than the official events and it is the express purpose of this workshop to practice and discuss this aspect in some detail, over a coffee, during two joint lunches or at the party at the end of the workshop. Topics might well include such things as what to talk about; politeness (e.g. agreeing and disagreeing; asking for help, or a favour; thanking) and the general rules of informal spontaneous talk (“small talk”) in English.

Interested students are asked to register in the eKVV by 13 May 2011 (>deadline). They should also write the course leader an email about their proposed presentation, including its topic and length (15 minutes max). After registration, participants will be sent a detailed programme and materials for the workshop. Instructor’s email: mpaetzold@uni-bielefeld.de