All Engineering Centre for Languages & Inter-Communication courses

Discover a bit more of Cambridge each term. Meet a member of our English team in CLIC and then take a guided walk to learn about different aspects of the city.

Session 1: Outline of the Lab

• Intro to the Falling Walls concept/background. Rules of the competition. Past Examples. Suggestions for basic structure. Elements of a successful 3 Minute Pitch, with appropriate visual materials. Next Steps.

Session 2: Targeted Training

• Defining requirements. Identifying suitable topic. Vocal delivery, content selection and presentation, body language tips. Key linguistic strategies. Tricks for your 3 PPTs.

Introductory course to French. This course is for those with no previous knowledge of French. Communicative context, with videos, audio, texts and conversation.

Introductory course to German. This course is for those with no previous knowledge of German. Communicative context, with videos, audio, texts and conversation.

Interacting effectively & managing meetings: This interactive online workshop covers how to participate in and manage meetings effectively and productively.

In addition to being proficient communicators in academic settings, there is also a need for Engineers to further develop and diversify their communication skills to suit a range of professional settings (Almeida, 2019).

The Lent term masterclass series focuses on communicating with impact, adapting effectively to audiences across academic and professional settings and using business English successfully. This series consists of the following workshops:

• Successfully pitching your work
• Interacting effectively & managing meetings
• Presenting yourself successfully
• Negotiating with clients

Research has identified that the ability to verbally express ideas clearly and the capacity to work confidently in a group are the two key skills for employability. This series of workshops focuses on aspects of these skills most pertinent to Engineers at Cambridge.

• NB. Please read Attendance section below before signing up for this course.

Negotiating with colleagues and clients: This interactive online workshop provides guidance and feedback on the language and strategies of successful negotiation.

In addition to being proficient communicators in academic settings, there is also a need for Engineers to further develop and diversify their communication skills to suit a range of professional settings (Almeida, 2019).

The Lent term masterclass series focuses on communicating with impact, adapting effectively to audiences across academic and professional settings and using business English successfully. This series consists of the following workshops:

• Successfully pitching your work
• Interacting effectively & managing meetings
• Presenting yourself successfully
• Negotiating with clients

Research has identified that the ability to verbally express ideas clearly and the capacity to work confidently in a group are the two key skills for employability. This series of workshops focuses on aspects of these skills most pertinent to Engineers at Cambridge.

• NB. Please read Attendance section below before signing up for this course.

This online interactive workshop provides guidance and feedback on sharing your research clearly and effectively in spontaneous and prepared situations.

• NB. Please read Attendance section below before signing up for this course.

This workshop provides strategies, tips and feedback on presenting yourself with maximum impact in spoken situations, with advice also provided for written self-presentations.

• NB. Please read Attendance section below before signing up for this course.

“Global mindset,” “cultural intelligence,” “intercultural competence” … no matter how you want to call the skills that are necessary to successfully interact with people who might not see the world like you due to culture, geography, background, age or other factors, they are paramount in the industry.

Engineers need to be experts in their field (hard technical skills) but without the ability to influence, negotiate, build trust, lead, communicate ideas to different audiences (soft skills, also referred to as power skills in a recent report), projects have a much smaller chance of succeeding. When in an intercultural setting, have you ever struggled with your peers’ style of communication, wondered why some people seem to use more formal language, be more direct than others or perhaps less flexible with time than you are accustomed to? Culture plays a big part in how we communicate and enhancing communication is so much more than choosing to speak the same language.

In addition, remote learning mode brings further complications to the equation. The challenges of video conferencing such as the ‘zoom fatigue,’ the caveats of written communication (emails or text messages), or practicalities of working together across different time zones, add some extra pressure on the already vulnerable intercultural communication.

So you’ve mastered presenting to get your message across effectively...

But what if we told you that there was no guarantee that this message would work across different cultures?

There are different aspects you have to take into consideration when preparing to address diverse audiences, such as how they want to be persuaded, the appropriate style of the language to use and how to gain professional credibility in their eyes.

In our interactive session, we will share tools and techniques that will allow you to adapt your content and delivery style to the different needs and expectations of the diverse teams in the modern workplace. 

You will find out how to:

• Analyse your audience; • Structure your presentation in an easy-to-follow way; • Adapt your content (language, references, examples, types of evidence, visuals) to communicate your message to a diverse audience; • Use your voice to help your audience better understand the content and follow it with ease.

Join this session to find out how to adapt your presentation style to be a more effective pre-senter in a culturally diverse work environment.

Further information: This course will be led by Gosia Syta. A brief bio can be found under the Trainer header below.