Job Discussion Forums

[microbabe]

Hi,

I have currently started doing General English (pre /upper int) and have a student whose needs have changed. In April she is going to a medical conference in Switzerland and is representing her country. She has just done the communication course and got a very high score. She wants more speaking and listening, this is a very small component of this course.

I feel she needs a specialised course since her immediate goal is being able to speak a the conference. Her speaking is pretty good. There are only two native teachers here and our workload is pretty high to do anything extra without dropping other classes.

Any ideas would be great, links etc

Thanks.

Ps. Why do students want to speak like a native and think it can happen in 39hrs.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

In the next 39 hours I would work with language specific to this student's job; have them describe exactly what they do, have them practice their presentation (if they have one), ask them a lot of open-ended questions about their job, and so forth. Then pat them on the back and wish them luck.

[Glenski]

Is she presenting (oral talk, or poster) or is she just being a part of the audience?

Does she expect to have to make small talk with other participants (in the hallway, at a banquet, elsewhere) or perhaps with sales people?

Find out. I deal with science students who go to conferences, and they struggle like hell to do anything, despite their advisors' insistence to learn how.

Listening will improve only after a long time and with extensive practice. Depending on your student's ability, I'd suggest trying either Randall's language lab http://www.esl-lab.com/ or the Voice of America Special English recordings (with scripts) http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/ .

Meanwhile, I get the impression that you might not feel confident/competent to handle the jargon she might have to use. It may still be possible to get her over the first hump of introduction jitters:

name
work place
department name
job title / specialty

Once you teach some basic expressions for these plus a few simple things like handshake, eye contact, and how to interrupt a conversation to say hi, it's all going to depend on the situation she's in (which is why I asked my initial questions).

[microbabe]

[spiral78]

Is she Turkish, microbabe? If so, I doubt she'll stumble over the basics of personal/professional introductions or anything like that. It'll be more complex stuff that might hang her up a bit.

In addition to what jpvan. has noted, I'd possibly go over some clarification techniques she can use just in case she finds herself not understanding what someone else has said. Asking for restatement (could you repeat), clarification (could you clarify this term) and repeating the key information (so, if I understand correctly, you've said....) can be really useful, particularly as I imagine she will be dealing with a very international group involving all sorts of accents!

[microbabe]