Pre-Sessional Courses: Academic Presentations

By the end of the course, students will

• know how to prepare an effective academic presentation

• be able to explain their research more clearly to a interdisciplinary audience

• have a greater awareness of how to deliver an academic presentation, verbally, vocally and visually

• be more confident in speaking before an audience

• have enhanced their 'presentation vocabulary'  

• be able to participate more confidently in seminar and conference settings

• know how to moderate questions and interventions in seminar and conference settings

The course includes work on the following:

• structure of presentation

• confidence building

• use of voice

• use of gesture

• body language

• visual aids

• managing the post-presentation discussion

• language appropriate to academic presentations

The instructor will analyse the class needs at the beginning of the course and will accordingly give more or less weight to the various areas above. 

Activities in and out of class include:

• video-clips

• discussions

• controlled exercises (vocal, verbal, and visual)

• mini-presentations

• self, peer, and expert observation

• reflective activities

Before coming to EUI in 2017 to teach Academic Writing and Presentations, Lisa Robbins taught English for Academic Purposes for University of East Anglia in London.  With the move to Italy, she taught Intermediate and Advanced Grammar for UniCollege: Linguistic Mediators of Florence. For EUI she also tutors and edits scholarly journal articles and academic papers. In the UK she edits for The Literary Consultancy and judges for the Bridport Novel prizes. Her novel Widdershins will be published in spring, 2024. Unspooling the Light, a story compilation came out in 2022.

By the end of the course, students will

• know how to prepare an effective academic presentation

• be able to explain their research more clearly to a interdisciplinary audience

• have a greater awareness of how to deliver an academic presentation, verbally, vocally and visually

• be more confident in speaking before an audience  

• know how to moderate questions and interventions in seminar and conference settings

The course includes work on the following:

• structure of presentation

• confidence building

• use of voice

• use of gesture

• body language

• visual aids

• managing the post-presentation discussion

The instructor will analyse the class needs at the beginning of the course and will accordingly give more or less weight to the various areas above.  

Activities in and out of class include:

• video-clips

• discussions

• controlled exercises (vocal, verbal, and visual)

• mini-presentations

• self, peer, and expert observation

• reflective activities

Daniel Gerrard teaches English for academic and specific purposes at Masaryk University Language Centre. He has an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from the University of Leicester and is currently studying for a PhD in Foreign Language Didactics at Masaryk University. His main research interests are in academic writing and corpus linguistics. 

By the end of the course, students will

• know how to prepare an effective academic presentation

• be able to explain their research more clearly to an interdisciplinary audience 

• have a greater awareness of how to deliver an academic presentation, verbally, vocally and visually

• be more confident in speaking before an audience  

• know how to moderate questions and interventions in seminar and conference settings

The course includes work on the following:

• structure of presentation

• confidence building

• use of voice

• use of gesture

• body language

• visual aids

• managing the post-presentation discussion

The instructor will analyse the class needs at the beginning of the course and will accordingly give more or less weight to the various areas above. 

Activities in and out of class include:

• video-clips

• discussions

• controlled exercises (vocal, verbal, and visual)

• mini-presentations

• self, peer, and expert observation

• reflective activities

Lewis Driver specialises in academic writing and English for academic purposes. He is a trained historian, but also works across the fields of SPS, law and policy writing. He studied History and Spanish at the University of Glasgow, before completing a Masters in International Development at the University of Salamanca. He is currently finishing a PhD at the EUI in the department of History and Civilisations.