| Before we start, Spiros and Hiroko, |
| thanks for coming in today to talk about your recent study experiences |
| and congratulations to you both in doing so well in your first semester exams! |
| I'd like to discuss with you the value of the English for Academic Purposes course you did here last year |
| before starting your university course. |
| Spiros, if I could start with you, |
| what parts of the programme have now proved to be particularly valuable to you? |
| Um... I think that having to do a seminar presentation really helped me. |
| For example, a couple of weeks ago in our marketing subject, |
| when it was my turn to give a presentation I felt quite confident. |
| Of course, I was still nervous but... |
| because I had done one before, I knew what to expect. |
| Also, I know I was well-prepared and I had practised my timing. |
| In fact, I think that in relation to some of the other people in my group, |
| I did quite a good job because my overall style was quite professional. |
| What about you, Hiroko? |
| Mmm, that's interesting. |
| In my group, I was really surprised by the way the students did their presentations - |
| they just read their notes aloud! |
| Can you believe that? |
| They didn't worry about their presentation style or keeping eye contact with their audience |
| and I remember that these things were really stressed to us in the course here. |
| So, how did you approach your presentation, Hiroko? |
| Well, to speak frankly, I read my notes too! |
| At the time, it was a relief to do it this way, but... |
| actually, when I had finished, I didn't feel any real sense of satisfaction. |
| I didn't feel positive about the experience at all. |
| That's a pity. |
| You know, although I was pleased with my presentation, |
| I am not so pleased with my actual performance right now in the tutorials - |
| during the whole semester, I've not said anything in our tutorial discussions. |
| Not a word. |
| Really, Spiros? |
| Why's that? |
| Do the other students talk too much? |
| It's partly that, |
| but it's mostly because I have had no confidence to speak out. |
| Their style of speaking is so different. |
| It's not the style we were used to during the course. |
| They use so many colloquialisms, |
| they're not very polite and sometimes there seems to be no order in their discussion. |
| Also, they are very familiar with each other, |
| so because they know each other's habits, |
| they can let each other into the discussion. |
| You're right, Spiros, I've experienced that too. |
| For most of this semester, I've said absolutely nothing in tutorials. |
| But recently, I've been trying to speak up more and I just jump in, |
| and I've noticed an interesting thing. |
| I've noticed that if they thought my point was interesting or new, |
| then the next time they actually asked for my opinion, |
| and then it was much easier for me to be part of the discussion. |
| That's great, Hiroko! |
| I hope that happens for me next semester. |
| I'll have to work hard to find some interesting points. |
| What helped you to find these ideas? |
| I think that one thing that helped me with this was the reading. |
| I've had to do so much reading this semester just to help me make sense of the lectures. |
| At first, I couldn't understand what the lecturers were talking about, |
| so I had to turn to the books and journals. |
| Every night I read for hours, |
| using the lists of references that were given, and I made pages of notes. |
| At breakfast, I read and read my notes again. |
| This habit has helped me to follow the ideas in the lectures, |
| and it's also given me some ideas to use in the tutorials. |
| But i did so much reading anyway. |
| I don't think there's any time left over for anything extra. |
| My reading speed is still quite slow, |
| though I'm much better at dealing with vocabulary than I used to be. |
| What else do you think we could add to the course program to help with this reading problem? |
| There's not really anything because it's my problem. |
| I remember we were given long articles to read. |
| We didn't like that but now I realise that reading those long articles was good preparation for the things I need to read now. |
| Also, in class, we regularly had speed-reading tasks to do, |
| and we kept a record of our reading speed, |
| so the teachers were encouraging us to work on that. |
| That's true, Spiros, |
| but what we read could have been different. |
| Sometimes in the English class, I felt frustrated when I had to read articles about the environment or health or education, |
| because I wanted to concentrate on my own field, |
| but we didn't read anything about engineering. |
| So, I think I wasted some time learning vocabulary I didn't need. |
| Hmm... but surely the strategies you were taught for dealing with that vocabulary were helpful. |
| Yes, but psychologically speaking, |
| I would have felt much better working on reading from my own field. |
| What do you think Spiros? |
| Oh, I agree, that would have helped my confidence too |
| and I would have been more motivated. |
| It was good though that we could work on our own topics when we wrote the research assignments. |
| Okay, let's move on to writing now... |