ACADEMIC SPEAKING: HOW TO DELIVER YOUR SPEECH IN ACADEMIC EVENTS

Project Supported by Public Organizations in Other Countries, 2023 - 2024

The needs analysis conducted by the project team revealed that researchers (professors,

lecturers, research assistants and graduate students) with a lower speaking proficiency due to

lack of knowledge or inexperience have faced such problems as addressing people, greeting the

audience, initiating their speech / presentation, engaging in a discussion, having chat with other

participants during breaks and therefore building network. In this context, the aim of this project

is to provide the necessary knowledge which academicians may need in academic meetings and

to improve their speaking skills to initiate, maintain, and end a presentation, conversation, or

discussion in different roles like a presenter, moderator, or listener.

This project is composed of two main phases. In the first phase, a training program will

be developed, and a guide (e-booklet) will be prepared following a document analysis of the

curricula of the relevant courses like “Academic English”, “Academic Speaking”, and

“Academic English Skills” at leading institutions and universities. In the second phase, online

lectures will be provided through a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). The content of the

course will be based on actual needs in a realistic academic event in three parts. The training

starts with the basic features of academic meetings and speaking. In the second part, managing

an academic presentation; in other words, the stages (i.e. how to greet audience) of an academic

event are depicted and the possible conversation or speech models (i.e. how to raise a question

or make a comment as a listener in public) are presented to the trainees. In the last part, the

training focuses on academic speaking in social programs (i.e. how to develop network). Thus,

the trainees will be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills in an academic context.