Fall semester, 2011

The classes started a little late this semester, but have been going quite well until now. There are two groups (Wednesday, 3rd period and Friday, 3rd period), 8 students each. Half of them are beginners, while the other half are attending my seminars for the second or even third semester.

For the assistant professors' class, we are using the schedule-maker ちょー助 to decide the days and times of our seminar; the members are different (almost) every time, but we have managed to meet about 7 times so far.

Today was the last class for this year, but we will have 4 more next year!

While enjoying the winter break, how about listening to some presentations on http://www.ted.com/ or watching some animated talks on http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/?

Happy holidays and see you next year!

Presentations

At the end of every semester, I ask the students to make a short presentation (5-6 slides, up to 10 minutes) about their research, and experiment they've performed, a device they're using in their lab, etc.

Here are a couple of photos from the Wednesday seminar. Thank you for your nice presentations, Takashi, Akinobu and Tatsuya!

Spring Semester, 2011

Because I wanted more people taking part in my seminars, I made posters about AESS and put them up in front of all the main departments in KISOKO. My effort paid, and almost 40 people applied to join.

After having everybody come in, fill in a questionnaire and take a level test, I was able to make the following 3 groups:

Wednesday, 14:40-16:10, advanced (around 800 TOEIC score), 10 students

Thursday, 14:40-16:10, intermediate (around 700 TOEIC score), 10 students

Friday, 15:40-16:10, beginners (around 500-600 TOEIC score), 12 students

There are also 2 other students, who couldn't attend any of the larger seminars due to their busy schedule, that come to my office every Monday for a 1 hour class.

It is true that the numbers started dwindling once the hot months began (especially for the Thursday class), but I am pleased to say that attendance is still satisfactory in the other groups!

Catching Up

It has been too long since I last had time to write something here; more and more people found out about AESS, so I had more and more work to do(seminars, private tutorials, paper correction, etc).

Here's how AESS contributed to the improvement of Osaka University students and young researchers' English skills in the 2010-2011 school year:

1. over 100 students and professors had their papers, abstracts, presentation slides and scripts revised and corrected by the AESS staff; also at AESS, students came to rehearse their English presentations, and to ask for help in their correspondence with universities and research institutes abroad. I even had to go through a couple of doctor's theses written in English by Osaka University students (Japanese and foreign).

2. the number of students taking my academic English seminar was smaller than expected in the beginning, but it did increase in the second semester (30) as compared to the first (20). We had two beginner groups for the spring semester; those who continued in autumn went up a level, and formed the intermediate group. Also from autumn, I added another beginners' group, and a group for advanced learners, made up of young academic staff.

All in all, it was a good year. A lot of students seem to be too busy with their research to have time for English, which is a sad thing. On the other hand, there are quite a few students who have understood the importance of English in their future career, and are active both in my seminars, and in other extracurricular activities that put them in contact with foreign cultures and languages. Good for them, I say! Keep it up, by all means!