MENU

Practical English for Science and Engineering

Spring and Summer Quarters 2023

This intensive lecture program is equivalent to a subject at the Graduate School of Engineering (two credits will be given). Students attend four-day intensive classes.

Target of the Program

Acquiring the skills necessary for submitting English papers and making convincing presentations at academic meetings and international conferences by improving students’ ability to write technical papers and make oral presentations in English.

Course Plan

<Intensive Writing Lectures>
*Students take either set of the lectures conducted in English (2-day, 3 classes each) or Japanese (2-day, 3 classes each). (Students studying under e3 program should basically take the English lectures. Other students should clarify which set they prefer to take when registering for enrollment) Intensive writing lectures for this term will be given on Saturdays online, using the videoconferencing platform Zoom.

■First intensive lecture *equivalent to three classes
“How to write technical English papers (1): English logic and the structure of an academic paper”
Students will look at appropriate expressions for expressing various types of logic and work on applying this to sentences with the aim of creating well-constructed, clear sentences which flow logically. The use of sentence variety in paragraphs will also be studied so that students can avoid overly wordy, difficult sentences in academic text, and communicate effectively instead. The class will also look at the structure of an academic paper, where students will learn how to write a strong abstract and conclusion to optimize the impact of their written work.

■Second intensive lecture *equivalent to three classes
“How to write technical English papers (2): Writing introductions and reporting results: Avoiding plagiarism and explaining data and figures”
Students will first look at the most difficult part of the paper: the introduction. Its structure and function will be carefully considered, with extra attention given to common errors made by non-native English speakers. Students will then learn a variety of linguistic structures to explain results and express exactly what they mean without being repetitious and boring. The class will also look at skills to effectively avoid plagiarism, learning how to summarize, paraphrase, and incorporate the research work of others into the discussion sections.

【Lecture in English】 All writing lectures will be given online on Zoom.
Saturday, May 20, from 10 am to 4:00 pm
Saturday, May 27, from 10 am to 4:00 pm
* Lectures may end after 4:30 pm.

【Lecture in Japanese】 All writing lectures will be given online on Zoom.
Saturday, April 22, from 10:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Saturday, May 13, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
* Lectures may end after 4:30 pm.
*For the details of the lectures in Japanese, click here to visit the Japanese page.

<Intensive Presentation Sessions>
Presentation sessions will be given in small groups (maximum 8 students each) by native English speakers. The sessions will be held on Saturdays and planned to be given face to face. Students are placed in the maximum four groups and attend a two-day exercise.

■First intensive presentation practice session*equivalent to 4.5 classes
Each student will give a presentation in English. Students will learn the way to structure a presentation with a logical flow, techniques to attract the audience’s attention, as well as useful English expressions.

■Second intensive presentation practice session*equivalent to 4.5 classes
In accordance with the first presentation exercise, each student will give a presentation for the second time. Focusing on delivery, including pronunciation, intonation, facial expressions, gestures, and posture, students will learn how to make their presentations more effective and convincing.

【Class A】
Saturday, June 10, from 9 am to 5 pm
Saturday, June 24, from 9 am to 5 pm

【Class B】
Saturday, July 1, from 9 am to 5 pm
Saturday, July 15, from 9 am to 5 pm

Conditions for admission

  1. The number of students is limited to 32 due to restrictions on the number of classes for the intensive presentation practice sessions.
  2. Doctoral students of the Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology and Graduate School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (those under the tuition of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Engineering) are preferentially selected.
  3. Students should submit their score of English exams (TOEFL-iBT, TOEFL-PBT, IELTS, TOEIC, etc.) when applying for the course. The score will be used for the selection and placement purposes.
  4. Students must submit writing and presentation assignment during the course.
  5. Credits are not given to students failing to attend all the lectures and practice sessions./span>
  6. To enroll the course, students are required to submit the specific application to the CEED office in addition to the course registration.

Audit

Students can audit intensive lectures on writing. In that case, however, no credit will be given. If they wish to audit these lectures, they need to submit the application form as specified in Application Form section below.

Orientation

4:30 pm to 6:00 pm, Friday, April 7
Orientation for Intercultural Education Program and other CEED programs will be held on Zoom (in Japanese). Please check the page here for the details. For any other inquiries and support in English, please contact the CEED office by e-mail.

Application Deadline

By Friday, April 14. Register for the enrollment with Google Form.

Application Form

Applicants must follow the steps below to apply for this course.

■For credit (Attending all the classes is required.)
(1) Register for the course on the “Web Registration System” in the same way as for other specialized courses.
(2) Next, answer the Google form linked below.
Link to Google Form
*This website will only be displayed if you have logged in with the Google account associated with ELMS. Be sure to log in to ELMS first and refer to the link above. If you are logged in with another Google account, “Not Found” will be displayed.

■Only auditing writing lectures (Presentation sessions are not available.)
Register for the enrollment for auditing using Google form linked below.
Link to Google Form
*This website will only be displayed if you have logged in with the Google account associated with ELMS. Be sure to log in to ELMS first and refer to the link above. If you are logged in with another Google account, “Not Found” will be displayed.

CEED Office
Phone: 011-706-7163, e-mail: ceed-int◆eng.hokudai.ac.jp *Replace ◆ with an at sign. (Mr. Nakai)