Graduate School of health and Medical Sciences

Effective Speaking
Provider: Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Activity no.: 3744-25-00-03	There are no available seats
	Enrollment deadline: 22/08/2025

Date and time	22.09.2025, at: 09:00 - 09.10.2025, at: 14:30
Regular seats	15
Course fee	11,800.00 kr.
Lecturers	Morten Berg
ECTS credits	4.30

Contact person	Morten Berg E-mail address: mail@ikontext.dk

Enrolment Handling/Course Organiser	PhD administration E-mail address: phdkursus@sund.ku.dk

Aim and content This is a generic course. This means that the course is reserved for PhD students at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH. Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at the Graduate School, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrolment deadline, available seats will be allocated to the waiting list. The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD students at NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee Course description This course involves five days of in-person participation and one day online. It is aimed at non-native speakers of English who wish to hone their speaking skills to better reach their international audience. You will develop your grasp of the dynamics of speaking in formal settings as you learn to cope with the highly artificial situation of speaking to a group of people who you may feel are smarter and more knowledgeable than yourself. By understanding your own and your listeners’ reactions, you will be able to analyse and rationally assess your situation in order to tackle your natural anxiety. Rhetorical principles that help improve listeners’ comprehension are also discussed. To help you accommodate the variety of rhetorical traditions and linguistic backgrounds represented in academia, the course supports your skills in English-medium oral communication by providing guidance for the pronunciation of words, sentences and longer stretches of speech as well as rhythm and pitch contour. While being trained in plenary seminars and supervised group work for speaking to and interacting with forums of varying formality, you will receive extensive feedback on the several speaking assignments given over the course. In response to the changing meeting and conference practices following the Covid pandemic, the course integrates online delivery of a presentation. You are advised that this is a very intensive course requiring a sustained effort for lasting results. The spacing between course days thus aims at enabling reflection, planning and rehearsal of the course assignments. Elements • speaking and presenting exercises • pronunciation of individual words: rules and theory • intonation and other continuous elements of pronunciation (stress distribution, rhythm, variety) • group and individual coaching on pronunciation and intonation • submission of audio-recorded samples for feedback • handling online communication tools • optimizing the impact of online presentations • nonverbal elements: body language, gaze, voice, appearance, etc. • oral communication theory (oral v. written language, psychological aspects) • physical and mental preparation for presentations • selecting materials for, planning and structuring presentations • understanding listeners’ minds: forgetful, distracted, whimsical • cognition patterns: group and repeat ideas, be physical and concrete • communication skills: awareness not what you say but of what they hear • the strengths of the oral presentation compared with paper and poster formats Outcomes At the end of the course you will: • have developed and rehearsed at least four presentations on topics related to your PhD work and speciality • be more confident about engaging in public speaking in English • have the self-awareness and knowledge necessary for further developing your public speaking skills • be looking forward to making your next presentation! Participants Non-native speakers of English Dates Sep-Oct 2025: Mon 22, Wed 24, Fri 26, Wed 1, (Thu 2), Mon 6, Thu 9. The 1st and 2nd of October are delivered online. You can opt to reserve all of the 1st for course work or opt for two short days. You should check your KU email account (and its spam filter) three weeks before course start as you are expected to submit a sound recording before the course and provide input to the scheduling of group work. Language English Venue Panum and Zoom Form Mixed format: Plenary, group and individual work, feedback, voice exercises, audio and video recordings, discussion, own pronunciation practice delivered in person or online Course instructors Cand.mag. Morten Berg (English), owner at i kontext, mail@ikontext.dk; cand.mag. Helle Idland (Rhetorics) Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.

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