Speaking Skills

We aim to develop the key skills involved in oral communication: speaking in academic contexts, presenting and participating in seminar discussions. There will also be opportunities to practise your pronunciation, give a presentation and to relate the content to work in your own discipline.

Overview of the module

This module is intended for non-native speakers of English who wish to improve their academic speaking skills in English.  They will integrate the norms and conventions of seminar discussions and oral presentations with advice on how to improve their individual pronunciation of the English language. 

Aims of the module

The main aims of this unit are to:

• Enable students to understand and practise the norms and conventions of speaking in a seminar discussion
• Enable students to understand the norms and conventions of making an informal individual presentation
• Enable students to understand the norms and conventions of making a group presentation
• Give students advice on how to improve their pronunciation in English, as well as their stress and intonation patterns

Student learning outcomes

Having successfully completed the unit, students will be able to demonstrate ability, knowledge and understanding of:

• The features of seminar discussions
• To contribute confidently to seminar discussions
• How to structure and deliver an informal individual presentation
• How to structure and deliver a group presentation
• The range of academic vocabulary used in seminar and oral presentations
• How to improve their individual pronunciation, stress and intonation patterns in English.

Learning and teaching methods

The sessions will run as a mixture of seminar discussions, presentations and workshops. Students will be expected to research and prepare outlines of oral presentations, participate in discussions on various topics and give an informal presentation.

Assessment

This is non-credit bearing. There is no formal assessment for this module.

Further information can be found on English for Academic Purposes WEBSITE

The EAP skills support programme offers academic language support to international students who need to develop their English language and academic literacy skills during their studies. All classes are free of charge to international students registered at the University of Southampton. If you want to continue to improve your English, we offer the following academic language skills support classes: academic writing skills; PhD thesis writing skills; Masters level dissertation writing skills; critical thinking skills; presentation & seminar skills and everyday English skills.

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