On Thursday, August 31, Academic English Brush-up Seminar was held for Tokyo University of Science's full-time faculty members at the Kagurazaka Campus with the objective of acquiring know-how on how to run lectures in English more efficiently and polishing English skills used in global fields.
The seminar was held for one day and led by Joe Hüg, an English instructor who was invited from the English-language school Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin. The six participants had a fulfilling day at the seminar, enjoying a relaxed atmosphere full of humor.
 Lecture |
 Group discussion |
During the morning, a lecture was held on skills for operating lectures in English, and on how to encourage class participants to actively participate in lectures, with an active exchange of opinions. In the afternoon, a practice workshop was held with actual presentations in English by participants, by using the skills that they learned in the morning. Rather than simply being a practice of presentations, the afternoon workshop turned out to be a mutual learning opportunity for everyone, as participants and the instructor provided constructive feedback for each presentation, while effectively quoting what the participants had learned in the morning lecture.
 Presentation |
 Feedback from instructor Hüg to a presenter |
At times, instructor Hüg mentioned the keywords "Engage your audience," and emphasized the attitude of continuously keeping the listeners of the presentation in mind and implementing this method thoroughly.
♦Voices of participants
- I am grateful that the group was small. The class turned out be full of exchanges, of a level that I had never experienced before.
- This was helpful in thinking about how to make progresses with all classes, and not only English classes. It would have been nice to have contents on a Japanese person conducting classes in English for Japanese people.
- The contents were extremely detailed, and were very helpful since there were hints in various places on how to hold lectures. There was also a demonstration on how to lead classes.
- The whole-day seminar held in English raised my motivation, and was helpful in terms of flat exchanges with faculty members from other departments.
- This seminar should be held regularly.
- This seminar should be held for newly-appointed faculty members.
Based on the voices of participants and the needs within the University, TUS is planning on holding seminars of the same concept in the future, during the break periods in the summer and spring, while avoiding busy periods.