UCL - Séminaire d'accompagnement du mémoire

[BOE2113]

[ + 18h] 2 credits

Teacher(s): Stanley Lutts(supplée Renate Wesselingh), Annick Sonck, Renate Wesselingh

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

After this module students should feel fairly confident when giving a scientific presentation in English, focusing mainly on the academic field of biology.

Main themes

Training in scientific presentation skills, focusing on biology issues (taught by an English language teacher of the Institut des Langues Vivantes, UCL), and a public presentation in English of the state of progress of the student's master thesis.

Content and teaching methods

The course consists in three parts :
1. Training sessions (18h) on effective oral presentation techniques in science (at the ILV Language Institute) : facts and figures (graphs, comparisons, likelihood etc.), visual aids (OHP, Power Point), systematic pronunciation of recurrent terms in science and biology.
2. In the course of the second term, students can rehearse their presentation individually with the help of the language teacher (10h in all).
3. Final presentation at the end of term : public talk about the state of progress of the student's master thesis in presence of the thesis supervisor, followed by a question time.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

The assessment takes place right after the final presentation and focuses on the quality of the talk rather than scientific content. As to the English language command, assessment will focus on the student's progress throughout the language sessions, with specific attention to the pronunciation of recurrent terms, overall fluency and the way the student has actually applied the presentation techniques developed in class.