English Brush-up Workshops were held in GSE
In December 2018, the Graduate School of Economics organized two courses for students to help improve their English skills for academic purposes and to help them prepare for study abroad.
The first course was focused specifically on the IELTS test and was attended principally by undergraduate students who hope to study abroad during their degree. Students covered all aspects of the test and were taught some tips about how they could raise their score.
The second course was a course which sought to improve presentation skills in English. Nine students, including those from Japan and China, and both graduate and undergraduate students, participated in the course and had the opportunity to practice their presentations. The course covered various aspects of related to making a presentation. Participants learned about how to maintain an appropriate posture, how to speak at an effective pace and volume, how to keep presentation slides simple, and how to organize their ideas. After receiving feedback from their peers and an instructor, students presented their research in a mock conference setting. The progress they made was notable—compared to their initial presentation, and all participants looked more comfortable presenting their ideas to an audience than at the start of the course.
We hope that going forward, these students and other will feel confident enough to present their work at an international conference, from which they can both improve their research and help advance their future career.