All Language Centre courses

One of the biggest leaps that students have to make as they move from undergraduate to postgraduate study is in the amount of secondary work they need to absorb and process. This workshop will offer some general instruction on how best to sort, assess and analyse a large quantity of information at speed.

One of the biggest leaps students have to make as they move from undergraduate to postgraduate study is in the amount of secondary work they need to absorb and process. This workshop will offer some general instruction on how best to sort, assess and analyse a large quantity of information at speed.

The switch to hybrid working and the use of online conference platforms for much teaching and graduate presentation work offers its own specific challenges. Following on from earlier workshops on in-person presentations, this workshop gives students a chance to present and get feedback on the specific complications of online presentation.

This workshop is limited to seven students.

Students should prepare a brief (5-7 minute) presentation on an aspect of their academic work. If using audiovisual aids, students should send these to jww41@cam.ac.uk the day before the presentation.

Across disciplines, academic writing uses a repertoire of patterns of language to organise and create coherent texts. Evidence from large databases (corpora) of academic writing shows us how grammar and vocabulary follow regular patterns to create clarity, appropriate information focus and argument structure. This is a practical workshop with tasks to complete before and during the Zoom workshop.

This workshop continues the theme of Patterns and chunks in academic writing (1), looking at how writers signal the organisation of their texts using a repeated repertoire of language chunks. This is a practical workshop with tasks to complete before and during the Zoom workshop. Attendance at Patterns and chunks in academic writing (1) is not a prerequisite for attendance at this workshop.

Academic culture in English-speaking countries places a lot of emphasis on avoiding plagiarism, but conventions are often different from those in students’ home countries. This webinar will examine what constitutes plagiarism and look at the University of Cambridge regulations. Students will then be asked to complete some exercises online.

Academic culture in English-speaking countries places a lot of emphasis on avoiding plagiarism, but conventions are often different from those in students’ home countries. This webinar will examine what constitutes plagiarism and look at the University of Cambridge regulations. Students will then be asked to complete some exercises online.

This workshop offers the opportunity for up to seven students to present for 15-minutes each, on a subject of your own choice. This could be repeating a presentation you have given previously, practising a presentation you are due to give in the near future, or even designing a presentation for the purposes of the workshop in order to improve your presenting skills.

You will receive immediate oral feedback on both your spoken English and presenting style on completion of your presentation, as well as the opportunity to field questions from the rest of the group.

N.B. – although the maximum number of presenters is seven, further students may sign up to watch and ask questions.

There is an accompanying video on presentation skills which you should watch before attending this workshop.

This workshop offers the opportunity for up to seven students to present for 15-minutes each, on a subject of your own choice. This could be repeating a presentation you have given previously, practising a presentation you are due to give in the near future, or even designing a presentation for the purposes of the workshop in order to improve your presenting skills.

You will receive feedback on both your spoken English and presenting style on completion of your presentation, as well as the opportunity to field questions from the rest of the group.

N.B. – although the maximum number of presenters is seven, further students may sign up to watch and ask questions.

Towards the end of Michaelmas Term, students are often asked to give initial presentations of their work. This session will provide a broad introduction to what makes a good presentation, both in-person and online, and hopefully provide useful ideas about things to concentrate on beyond the formal content of a presentation. This session fits well with the Presentation Skills Practice on 15 November.

The most common way for students to share their work with their colleagues is via presentations, using a variety of techniques and methods. This webinar, which dovetails with the Presentation Skills Practice workshop on 23 November, will introduce some ways in which you can make your work come across as coherent and effective.

The most common way for students to share their work with their colleagues is via presentations, using a variety of techniques and methods. This webinar, which dovetails with the Presentation Skills Practice workshop on 18 November, will introduce some ways in which you can make your work come across as coherent and effective.

This workshop offers students the chance to give a short presentation, with or without PowerPoint. Its aim is to hone the skills required for an effective academic presentation, and to receive feedback in a supportive and friendly environment. A maximum 7 students only to present for up to 10 minutes each. Those wishing to present should please send a copy of their slides to Simon at spa29@cam.ac.uk at least an hour before the lesson to enable better feedback.

This workshop offers the opportunity for up to seven students to present for 15-minutes each, on a subject of your own choice. This could be repeating a presentation you have given previously, practising a presentation you are due to give in the near future, or even designing a presentation for the purposes of the workshop in order to improve your presenting skills.

You will receive immediate oral feedback on both your spoken English and presenting style on completion of your presentation, as well as the opportunity to field questions from the rest of the group.

N.B. – although the maximum number of presenters is seven, further students may sign up to watch and ask questions.

There is an accompanying video on presentation skills which you should watch before attending this workshop.

Practise your presentation skills and receive peer and tutor feedback. This workshop offers students the chance to give a short presentation, with or without PowerPoint. Its aims are to hone the skills required for an effective presentation, and to practise in a supportive and friendly environment. A maximum 7 students only to present for up to 10 minutes each. Students must be ready to present a pre-prepared, short presentation. Before the webinar, please also email your slides to spa29@cam.ac.uk to enable better feedback.

In this workshop we will look principally at the components of ‘fast speech’. These include use of weak forms, linking, stress time etc. The aim of the session is both to recognise those aspects of pronunciation which aid listening and to get plenty of practice. Students who have come to previous sessions on pronunciation with me are advised that some material will be repeated.

Foreign students often find that in everyday situations they struggle to understand native speakers who are talking quickly. Students also sometimes struggle to speak quickly themselves. This workshop will review some of the ways in which English pronunciation changes during fast, natural speech. It should therefore help students’ listening and speaking. Before the class, students must watch a video on Moodle. The real-time webinar will focus on practice, feedback and questions.

Foreign students often find that in everyday situations they struggle to understand native speakers who are talking quickly. Students also sometimes struggle to speak quickly themselves. This workshop will review some of the ways in which English pronunciation changes during fast, natural speech. It should therefore help students’ listening and speaking. Before the class, students must watch a video on Moodle at https://www.vle.cam.ac.uk/mod/folder/view.php?id=13339561 The real-time webinar will focus on practice, feedback and questions.

Are you a speaker of Spanish, Catalan, Portugese, Italian or French? Would you like to have the chance to work on aspects of your English pronunciation? If so, join us for this fun and informal workshop, which offers pronunciation practice for speakers of Italic (Latin-derived) languages. Vowel and consonant sounds, linking, stress and intonation will be covered.

This workshop offers a friendly forum in which speakers of Slavic languages can practise aspects of English pronunciation. The main focus will be on speakers of Eastern Slavic languages, but speakers of all Slavic languages are welcome to attend.

There is nothing to do before the workshop.

This workshop will look at a few of the specific difficulties which speakers of Slavic languages have in the pronunciation of English.

This workshop offers a friendly forum in which speakers of Asian languages can practise aspects of English pronunciation. The focus will be on speakers of Chinese and Japanese, but speakers of all Asian languages may attend.

This workshop offers a friendly forum in which speakers of Asian languages can practise aspects of English pronunciation. The focus will be on speakers of Chinese and Japanese, but speakers of all Asian languages may attend if space permits.

This online workshop will focus on some sounds that speakers of Chinese often have problems with. There is nothing to do before the workshop.

This workshop will focus on some sounds that speakers of Chinese often have problems with. There is nothing to do before the workshop.

This is a workshop for speakers of Romance Languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan &c.). It will focus on sounds which tend to cause difficulties across these languages (vowel sounds, the difference between b/v or l/w etcetera) and offer the chance for students to practice and improve the sound of their spoken English.

This is a workshop for speakers of Romance Languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan &c.). It will focus on sounds which tend to cause difficulties across these languages (vowel sounds, the difference between b/v or l/w etcetera) and offer the chance for students to practice and improve the sound of their spoken English.

This workshop offers an introduction to various techniques for proof-reading a text, to try to ensure that it is as error-free and coherent as possible. It will also teach how to read and use basic proof-reading symbols.

There is nothing to do before the workshop

Intended as a complement to the editing workshop on 17 May, this session will look at the next stage in writing and writing up: proofing a text in order to leave it in as perfect a state as possible before submission.

This online webinar will explain correct usage of commas, capital letters, hyphens, apostrophes, quotation marks, full stops, colons and semicolons. There is nothing to do before the lesson.

Unlike in many other languages, punctuation in English is occasionally a matter of style rather than of obedience to fixed rules. This workshop will refamiliarize students with the basics of punctuation and show them how guidelines can be followed and occasionally broken.

This workshop will consider ways of referencing in a coherent and legible fashion, establishing what might be best practice for the needs of particular academic formats (dissertation, article, paper etc). Footnoting will also be looked at.

Relative clauses, often involving which, that or who, are very common in general and academic English. However, they cause problems for many students, sometimes significantly altering the meaning from what they intend. This workshop introduces some grammatical rules of relative clauses and explores common errors that non-native speakers of English frequently make.

Relative clauses are very common in general and academic English but they cause problems for many students, sometimes significantly altering the meaning from what they intend. This workshop introduces some grammatical rules of relative clauses and explores common errors that non-native speakers of English frequently make. The workshop involves watching a video and completing exercises before an online Zoom workshop.

The exams that take place towards the end of the academic year can sometimes seem threatening. They don’t have to. This workshop will look at ways to prepare efficiently and effectively in the run-up to exams, working on various aspects of the revision process all the way through to the exams themselves VENUE: - http://cam.adobeconnect.com/revisionskills/

Easter term is the time when examined courses are traditionally assessed. This workshop will help students prepare for exams by offering them guidance about how to revise their year’s work, and how to deal with the exam itself.

There is nothing to do before the workshop.

Many students on the ADTIS programme will be studying on examined courses. As the University returns to in-person examinations, this workshop will examine how best to prepare for exams, both in the run-up to them and on the day of the exam itself.

Towards the end of the Michaelmas Term, most students start to prepare written work for submission and evaluation. This workshop, offers some key ideas about the microstructures which can be deployed within a piece of academic writing, and shows students how best and most effectively to present their ideas.

Even if the writing of foreign students is grammatically correct and coherent, it can sometimes have an undesired impact on the reader because it is written in the wrong style. This webinar will give some guidance on what is usually considered good academic style in physical and biological sciences, and engineering. Students will be asked to complete some exercises after the class.

Even if the writing of foreign students is grammatically correct and coherent, it can sometimes have an undesired impact on the reader because it is written in the wrong style. This webinar will give some guidance on what is usually considered good academic style in physical and biological sciences, and engineering. Students will be asked to complete some exercises after the class.

Abstracts, Introductions and Literature Reviews are common sections of academic papers and dissertations / theses in the sciences. This workshop will introduce these three sections and explore how they frequently overlap. It is intended for science students in the Schools of Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Technology and Clinical Medicine.

Results and Discussion are very common chapters in academic papers and dissertations / theses, especially in science. This workshop will introduce these sections and explore how they frequently overlap. It is intended for students of experimental science in the Schools of Physical Science, Biological Sciences, Technology and Clinical Medicine.

Results and Discussion are very common chapters in academic papers and dissertations / theses, especially in science. This workshop will introduce these sections and explore how they frequently overlap. It is intended for students of experimental science in the Schools of Physical Science, Biological Sciences, Technology and Clinical Medicine.

Integrating sources into your own writing is a key requirement in most academic genres. In this workshop you will re-familiarise yourself with the principles of summarising and paraphrasing source material and practise this in order to boost your confidence when working independently to integrate sources in your written work.

Integrating sources into your writing is a key requirement in many academic genres. In this workshop you will re-familiarise yourself with the principles of summarising and paraphrasing source material, and you will have the opportunity to practise these techniques in order to boost your confidence and proficiency when integrate sources into your own written work.

No preparatory work is required before attending this workshop.

Are you contributing to a group project as part of your degree? Or looking to build on your teamworking skills as you prepare to enter the workplace? Either way, this workshop will give you strategies for communicating and collaborating effectively — so you and your team perform at your best.

Come to the workshop prepared to talk about a team you’re part of now, will be part of, or have contributed to in the past.

Are you contributing to a group project as part of your degree? Or looking to build on your teamworking skills as you prepare to enter the workplace? Either way, this workshop will give you strategies for communicating and collaborating effectively — so you and your team perform at your best.

Come to the workshop prepared to talk about a team you’re part of now, will be part of, or have contributed to in the past.

Every postgraduate student knows the value of their research, but another important skill is convincing other people of its value. This workshop will use ideas from narrative and creative writing theory to give students some clues about how best to present their work clearly and convincingly, both in written and in-person form.

Do you want to increase the probability of completing your PhD on time and be happier doing it? Come along to this talk given by our ADTIS Life Coach, Dr Sue Jackson who will share the "Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Students” with you. You will be asked to reflect on what each of these “secrets” means to you, and prepare an action plan accordingly. You will also be introduced to what life coaching is about and shown how to sign up for an individual life coaching session if you wish. Please bring a notebook or paper and something to write with.

Why waste time going to translation dictionaries or just hoping that what you write will be right? The best resource for writing an academic paper in your subject is other papers which you can use as a model for your own writing. In this workshop we look at how to use journal papers and search engines to expand the accuracy and range of your academic vocabulary. Please make sure you bring a paper copy of a well-written journal paper from your field to the workshop.