Oral Training 2 focuses on improving student skills in making academic presentations in English and listening to such presentations. Most people fear making presentations because they do not understand what they entail. In general, when making academic presentations in English, undergraduates are challenged in six areas: (1) spoken English skills (pronunciation, intonation and related areas); (2) personal presence issues; (3) processing information for an audience; (4) organizational techniques; (5) visual presentation of information and (6) delivery skills.
In the Fall semester this class focuses on the first three areas identified above. We will review and develop the English language skills and personal presence skills which underlie all successful English presentations. Specifically, students will develop a list of their personal strengths and weaknesses in spoken English and in making presentations. Class exercises will then focus on making improvements in the weaker areas, which will improve their personal presence when making a presentation. Since good presentations usually involve paraphrasing and summarizing ideas expressed by others, OT2 students will practice paraphrasing and summarizing information from articles on making effective presentations in English. This information will be used in developing student presentations in the Spring semester of this course, so students must take good notes.
In the Spring semester, we will build on the skills developed in the Fall semester as we learn how to organize information into effective presentations and create computer presentations which are effective to an English-speaking audience.
Class time in the Fall semester will be split between three general areas: (1)developing more command of spoken English so students become more effective presenters in English;
(2) summarizing and paraphrasing information for other students in class; and (3) analyzing video-taped presentations. Unless a student presentation is scheduled, in each class, students