Well, I’d like to begin by saying how pleased I am that so many of you have

Well, I’d like to begin by saying how pleased I am that so many of you have come to the first of our study skills sessions this term. In the past, many students have said how they have appreciated the classes.  ’Why didn’t they tell me that at school?’ is one of the most frequent remarks. Further education is quite different from being at school, as I am sure you’re finding out. You will be treated more as an equal—but you will also be expected to be much more independent. This means that there is far more pressure on you to take your own decisions—such as working out a study programme—and sticking to it. I’ll give you our programme for the term during the break, by the way. You may also find that you are asked to do things in a different way from classes at school—taking part in seminars and tutorials, for example. That is going to be the theme of this evening: speaking skills. I’ll refer to writing from time to time because I am not going to talk about pronunciation—I am talking more about the ways in which we structure discourse in English, the way we organize what we say. All too soon you will need to do this—when you are asked to present your ideas on the particular job—in a seminar—or in writing—or both. I think it would be as well to run through some of the conventions that we generally use. Much of this may be familiar to some of you, but I think it is worth saying again. I shall cover three areas: first, the beginning, a good introduction; then, the middle, making your point effectively, giving examples and linking it altogether logically; and finally, the end, coming to a good conclusion. Today we’ll also look at ways of agreeing—and disagreeing even ways of interrupting and taking floor—but first I’d like each of you to take a clean sheet of paper—now divide the page vertically into three columns—about the same size if you can—hand the one on the left ’function’—the other two are one for speaking and one for writing—now the column on the left.