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Oral Skills

Oral Skills Module

This module concludes with an oral exam in the form of a 7-minute academic presentation.

Registration

Winter Semester 2024_25 

Book Exam slots from January 6th to January 23rd

Exam slots available from February 3rd to February 6th

For the oral examination, please arrange an examination date with the English and American Studies Students' Office. Please bring your HHU card with you! 

Then register on the student portal at least one week before the examination date. Please fill in Alexandra Habot as the examiner, even if you have taken the seminars with other instructors.

Exam Guidelines

Task

Give a 7-minute presentation to a panel of two lecturers on an academic topic of your choice, either:

a) a topic you covered in a seminar of English literature, culture or linguistics, or your minor.
b) the broad theme of ‘Global English’

Outline

Students MUST submit a one-page outline and have it checked by their instructor a minimum 2 weeks prior to the exam. The final outline must be submitted shortly before the date of the exam. You will recieve instructions  how to upload your outline (and optional one-page visual) once you have been registered for the exam on ILIAS in the final week of classes. (See below for further information and examples).

Pass/Fail Criteria:
 

All students MUST meet the following criteria.

  • Speakers will be penalized if a presentation is shorter than 6.5 or longer than 8 minutes, and cut off if it is over 8.5 minutes. Students who speak for less than 5 minutes automatically fail.
  • Failure to submit final documents (outline) could negatively impact the grade.
  • The topic cannot be a topic used in a previous presentation class.

Plagiarism

Students MUST write their presentations in their own words. Presentations may be recorded to be checked for plagiarism. If the examiners suspect the wording of speech has been directly taken from another source, the student will receive a fail and may be further penalized.