English as individual high-intensity courses

Below you can read more about academic language consultant Sophie Swerts Knudsen's process and considerations when she prepares an individual high-intensity English course.

"Before a one-on-one course begins, a considerable amount of preparation takes place. Based on a needs analysis filled in by the participant, we build a course specifically tailored towards the participant’s academic needs. These needs may vary a lot: some book two sessions to practice an academic conference presentation; others feel they need a 15-session course to increase their academic writing skills or lift their academic oral proficiency.

The challenges or requests in our one-on-one sessions are then tackled through CIP’s own research material and research in general.  Depending on our participants’ needs, we first carefully select research material and exercises to target the request. For example, part of the fundamental knowledge of almost all one-on-one sessions focusing on oral proficiency is research material on the expansion and consolidation or retention of academic vocabulary and/or signposting material:  words or phrases that help articulate the structure of an oral delivery. The participant is then taught how to implement this material through tailored exercises, which means all exercises and practice during the sessions are in the participant’s own field.

A recurring request for one-on-one sessions is feedback and assistance on academic presentations. After I listen to the delivery of the presentation, we implement signposting material to structure the entire delivery, to flag the most important parts of the argumentation, to signal transitions and to guide the audience through the entire delivery. We then lift the language of the presentation to an appropriate academic level by implementing more formal, academic vocabulary. Finally, during the sessions, the participant delivers/practices the presentation several times to ensure flow in the academic language, correct timing, appropriate non-verbal communication, and, last but not least, to reach a confidence level that allows him/her to speak extemporaneously to the audience."