The first day of your uni life - Part 1

It’s time for Academic Listening - a series for students at English-speaking universities.

Imagine: today is the first day of your uni life … How do you feel? Excited and confident? Or

maybe a little anxious? How do you think you’ll cope? And how can you make the learning

experience easier? For an insight, join Susan Fearn and members of the World Service class of

2001.



Susan: Well, if you think you might have problems, don’t worry. You’re not alone.



Angelica: Entering into the English speaking educational system for me was quite a change -

the main problem was understanding lectures - academic English is quite high level of speaking therefore the first was to become familiar with the listening understanding.



Constant: I think the pronunciation of English people is not the same as I learned at school - I

come from Ivory Coast, it's in West Africa - the teacher in my country had a French accent -the teacher of English - and it's not the same accent here, so I think the pronunciation, the accent is quite different .

Emma: You know how to express yourself in your own language - you know what you want to say but it's difficult to put it in the exact words.



Susan: In this series we’ll enter the world of further education and focus particularly on some of the linguistic problems experienced by students like you. And we’ll try to identify strategies for coping with study in another language. Students and teachers will share their tips on effective learning, and give advice on some of the pitfalls to avoid. There’ll be a mix of theory, practice and personal experience.

In this first programme, we focus on a special kind of English course, designed to prepare students for their studies. It’s called EAP.

EAP is actually studying English for Academic Purposes.



Susan: Christine Reeves teaches at Bell Norwich, a language school in the East of

England.



That means studying English - the kind of English that you're likely to need to cope with life and studying at a British University or any other English speaking university - it could be the United States it could be Australia - and it prepares them and gives them necessary skills which enable them to manage their studies.



Susan: English for Academic purposes is a particular kind of English - used by a particular group of people. If you speak Academic English, you’ll know a special vocabulary associated with your subject, and you’ll be used to writing or speaking in a particular way. You’ll know how to structure an essay or a report, for example; and you’ll be familiar with the language used in lectures, seminars and tutorials.

If you study EAP, you’ll practise special language skills for studying at a high level, and you’ll gain a number of useful strategies to make your learning more effective. Christine Reeves again.



Most EAP courses would cover various components - for example here at Bell the components we would always cover would be study skills, the students would also do quite a heavy component of writing, there would be a lecture, a weekly lecture, and there would normally be a component of social English to help them manage at the bank, for example, that sort of thing.

Susan: An EAP course introduces you to the special language associated with the academic world - common words, expressions, particular structures. It provides a range of advanced study skills.

A good EAP course will give you training in general English as well. During your university course, you’ll lead a double life. On duty: as a student -grappling with academic ideas in academic English… and off-duty, in everyday situations, using less formal English. It’s not unusual to have problems in both areas.



Constanza: I would like to be more fluent with my speaking because I've got ideas in my mind but I don't have enough language to transmit my ideas - that's my problem.



Jose Arturo: In the case of English language, there are many different accents, and when you learn the English in your country, you only learn the English prepared for learning English -that is a more careful accent, that is not very fast. And when you come here - honestly, sometimes I can't understand anything. Some people speak fast, some people speak with not care of stressing the words that they say, so sometimes it's very difficult to follow them.