How English Skills Helps International Students to Find Their Academic Position

The topic of this week is interesting. We are free to talk about any progresses and challenges we have been come across for now in improving our academic English, which includes writing, reading, speaking and listening.

My English skill has obviously been improved since I got here. I guess most of the international students have the same feeling. The English skill I have gained can be separated into two parts, everyday living English and academic English.

Living English is different from what we have been learning so far for TOFEL test and GRE test. We do not intend to learn it but progresses are made without notice. This kind of English skill includes the chatting skill with your adviser and your colleagues; the vocabulary we gained whenever we went to the supermarket. We never learnt names of vegetable or deserts for TOFEL before, we just pick them up because we need them to survive and live a good life here away from home, from everything we have been familiar with.

However, the main point I am going to make today is academic English. It is different from casual speaking English and has more significance, because it makes us recognize the social position we have. We are here not only to take in information. We also need to interact with other scientists. We need to offer out own opinion and get ourselves heard. This is what makes us different from tourists. 

To obtain an academic position, we need to dig into our field and find our own interest. This needs a huge amount of reading, named literature review. This process is often neglected by students, but actually it is the fastest way leading you into a new field. By learning others' work, you can easily have an overview of your field and establish a structure of past achievements, present researches and potential problems to be solved in the future. 

By locating your own interest through literature review, you have already gained a vocabulary in your field, now it is time to attend some seminars or conferences in your field. It is also a process of information accumulation,however this time you have more interaction and with some luck you might be able to express your opinion and share your idea with other scientists. It is also a very good way to learn. From this experience you can not only get advises for your project development but also develop a good etiquette for official occasions. Your speaking skill is also improve to another level, with which you can freely talk about professional topics with others. Your position is showing itself at this stage. You will feel like being involved, not an outsider any more.

Writing skill is something I am still working on. I have been learning several academic writing strategies on 5901, such as critical review and data analysis. I still feel reserved while I am writing. The solution is still to be found. For now, I think more reading and writing practice is the only way to improve writing. There is no shortcuts. Only accumulation little by little can lead you to a higher level of academic writing.

After all, language is just a tool we use to receive and share information. It is your idea that makes you unique and significant as a scientist.