Lecturing in English: How to Deliver Clear and Engaging Lectures With Confidence

 

Video Tutorials for RWTH Professors and Lecturers

 

Course Content

At RWTH Aachen University more and more study programs are being offered in English. This means that
many professors and lecturers are faced with the challenge of holding lectures and teaching courses in a foreign language.

The RWTH Language Center aims to help those who wish to reach their full potential as a lecturer when using
English as a medium of instruction. We have created a video course covering a wide range of topics, such as
storytelling, signposting, pronunciation, the use of jargon, grammatical structures and many more.

The objective of this course is to raise lecturers’ selfawareness and provide support for those aspects of their teaching they might feel uncomfortable with. Since participants will probably have individual preferences
regarding the topics they would like to focus on, this course is composed of stand-alone modules from which participants can select those that are relevant to them. Should participants opt to do the whole course,
the various modules can be studied in any order they deem suitable.

 

Course Overview

Each module has three components: up to four short lectures, a transcript of all videos and support material. The latter contains a brief overview of the topic, questions you should ask yourself before and after watching the videos, ideas for reflection on the topic, and further material on grammar, pronunciation and useful words and phrases. You can work through the course modules in any order you like.

Module 1: How to lecture with confidence as a ‘non-native’ speaker
1.1 Introduction to Lecturing in English
1.2 The global spread of English and its implications
1.3 Finding and using your natural style

Module 2: How to improve your English pronunciation
2.1 Accent: What is the target?
2.2 Accent: Sounds you need to get right
2.3 How to make your pronunciation easy to understand

Module 3: How to plan and create engaging courses
3.1 What’s the hook? Facts, anecdotes and great visuals
3.2 How to use narrative
3.3 How to maintain engagement during the entire course

Module 4: How to get the tone right
4.1 How to deal with jargon
4.2 How to find the right register and style
4.3 How to use humour

Module 5: How to use grammar to support your message
5.1 How to use inversion for emphasis
5.2 How to use cleft sentences for emphasis
5.3 How and when to use the passive and active voice

Module 6: How to overcome common grammatical challenges
6.1 How to talk about the past
6.2 Question tags, prepositions, relative pronouns and articles
6.3 Talking about amounts and quantities
6.4 The continuous aspect

Module 7: How to deal with specialized language
7.1 Key lexical differences between English and German
7.2 Acronyms and mathematical expressions

Module 8: How to communicate clearly and effectively with multilingual audiences
8.1 How to make your lectures easy to follow
8.2 How to deal with challenging vocabulary
8.3 How to deal with questions in class

Module 9: How to use your voice to engage students
9.1 How to use pace, stress and pitch
9.2 How to use rhetorical devices
9.3 How to make your message clear and straightforward

Module 10: Course conclusion – How to keep growing as a lecturer
Course summary