Academic Insights –

My name’s Patrick Andrews. I’m a distance tutor. I work in English for academic purposes and English for business English. There are two kinds of audio-visual material that students may encounter. One is video material that is part of the course. The second kind is an online tutorial where students talk to their tutors and fellow students. Students may want to watch video for various purposes. One is to learn language that is specific to their subject and to extract information about their subject. A second reason is that they may want to watch videos for a good example that they can follow when they are talking themselves. A student should think about why they are watching. Are they watching to get particular information that may be helpful for them in writing they’re going to do or particular information that will be helpful for them in giving a presentation? One strategy is to think about what they already know beforehand, because the AV will be related to what they’d studied before. A second possibility is to divide the video into shorter extracts, so watch a little bit at a time. Watch out for those words that are said more slowly and louder. A third possibility is to look at a transcript. The notes can be very useful for you in your later studies, either for writing an essay or for doing an exam or for giving a presentation. A second reason is that it helps you to focus on the main points. A third reason is that you can compare your notes with the notes that other people have taken so you can have some sort of discussion about - about what you’ve heard. Students need to prepare two kinds of language for an online tutorial. One of these is the specific language related to the topic that’s going to be covered. The second is the kind of language that is involved in communicating effectively within the tutorial, so the words like “This must be because…” “I think it’s this because…” “Is this possible?” “Why do you think that?” “What about doing this?” Go the distance.