Verbal technique

Speakers should be able to express themselves clearly and confidently paying careful attention to effective use of language and rhetorical devices such as metaphor and analogy. The intelligent use of phrase and considered deployment of language will be rewarded.

General

Although cultural differences will result in a wide variety of styles, which the Judges will recognise, the essential aim of the Speakers should be to develop a rapport with the audience.

Questions (Ability to deal with questions concisely and effectively) Evidence of anticipation of questions will be rewarded.

The Speaker should not try to monopolise the question period to avoid answering further questions.

The Speaker should be able to understand and deal confidently with questions, answering them succinctly and relevantly.

The Judges may penalise Speakers where they believe a question has been staged.

General Effectiveness (Ability to communicate thought and emotion and to achieve the overall objectives of the speech)

It is important that the speech holds the audience's attention and that it is clearly structured. Good Speakers will build an appropriate relationship with the audience. The effective use of humour and/or emotion should be rewarded.

A natural style that is not over prepared or rehearsed should be rewarded, as should spontaneous comments that are relevant to the situation.

Marks

Marks will be allocated as follows:

Substance 40

Points Style and Technique 30

Points Questions 10

Points General Effectiveness 20 Points

TOTAL 100 Points

(Retrieved from www.esu.org)

Appendix F. Скрипт текста о Британских университетах

(Круглый стол по теме «Что мы знаем об университетах мира»)

Round table on the topic “Get Acquainted with British Universities”

run by the International Students’ club

Moderator: Good morning. We continue to get acquainted with universities of different countries. Today we devote our round table to such a country as Great Britain. The universities of Great Britain are diverse in their origin and traditions, status and methods, but three groups can be distinguished at once. They are, first, Oxford and Cambridge, secondly, the Scottish Universities, and thirdly, the English civic universities or red-brick universities. With us in the studio are students who are interested in these three groups of universities from research point of view. So meet Andrew Marev, Kate Sarevski and Angela Davidson who carry out research on these three groups of universities. They came from different parts of Europe to participate in international students’ forum devoted to university research activities. We are glad they agreed to present some of their research outcomes to us. Please, tell us what group of university you are writing about and characterize your group in brief. Who would like to start?

Kate Sarevski: I think it’ll be good to start with Oxbridge, that is Cambridge and Oxford, the oldest universities of England, and probably the world, that date from the 12th and 13th, centuries. They are almost identical, more like two branches of the same university then like separate unconnected universities – which they in fact are. Their history has been very familiar. Both retained the system of residential colleges when other medieval universities abandoned it. So they are unique from this point of view. Each college is run by a Master and a Board of Fellows: they maintain their buildings, repair and add to or demolish them.

They arrange about the food and the colleges servants. When the Master dies or retires it in usually the Fellows who elect a new one.

I may add that Oxbridge have (has) been historically associated with the state religion. Until 1854 at Oxford and 1856 at Cam only members of the Church of England could enter the Universities. In modern times Oxbridge are (is) associated with the higher ranks of society. The belief is that students at Oxbridge are often not thinking of an academic career but have instead ambitions at the Bar or in politics.

Moderator: Thank you, Jane. And to when the Scottish universities appeared. Who of you studies this group?

Andrew Marev: That’s the topic of my research. I specialize in pedagogy and take a special interest in the way the Scottish Universities teach students; otherwise I am interested in their methods and techniques of teaching. These universities inherited a lot from great universities of Paris and Bologna. They were founded much later than Oxbridge, to be exact, it was at the end of the 15^th – the beginning of the 16^th century. As the sources say their first students could be both representatives of ministry and the sons of small farmers. That means that even at the dawn of their appearance they were quite open to the public, as we say now – quite democratic. These universities in accordance with their European classical examples strived to represent sciences to the maximum eхtent. Among them there were not just law, theology, philosophy, but also mathematics, medicine, everything that Europe could afford at that time.

Moderator: Thank you, Andrew. And what will our third participant say?

Angela Davidson: Hi, I am Angela Davidson. I major in sociology of education. The topic of my research is ‘English Civic Universities’, the ECUs in short. Most often this group of universities is called red brick universities or red bricks. In fact they were originally built of red bricks. Color brings a special meaning and so is symbolic in this context. It indicates a different type of universities. I know that, for example, Kiev State University’s buildings are always painted red, just as Minsk Polytechnic Academy’s buildings have always been green. But as French people say, ‘revenons a nos mautons’ – let us come back to the subject of our discussion. Thus, English civic universities even in their appearance look contrastive to white stones of Oxbridge. Red brick universities are all comparatively new formations. London University, for example, which is traditionally called “London University College”, was founded in 1827 (XIX century). Its first years were the years of struggle for survival against hostile forces of the Church and the State until 1850s. London University was aimed to provide a university education for those who were not admitted to Oxbridge. Other provincial universities were started for people who were debarred from Oxbridge because of the lack of money but not because of religious beliefs. Simultaneously there appeared technical universities and poly, such as Colleges of Advanced Technology, Technical Colleges, Training Colleges and other institutions.

I want to add that today courses in Arts and Science are offered by most Universities. At the end of the previous century about 45% of full-time students in British universities were engaged in the study of art subjects such as history, law, economics, languages; the rest were studying pure or applied sciences such as medicine, dentistry, technology, agriculture… I still need to check statistical data on what the proportion today is and to compare it with the data on other countries.

Moderator: Thank you all for interesting factual information you gave us. And now I suggest touching upon one more issue and that is university studying process.

Kate Sarevski: They use the tutorial system to teaching at Oxbridge. This system of individual tuition is one of the ways in which Oxbridge differ(s) from all the other English Universities. Every student has a tutor and as soon as you come to Oxbridge, one of the first things you do is to go and see your tutor. Tutors plan students' work, suggest the books that they should read and give them assignments, i.e. an essay to write. Each week a student goes to their tutor, perhaps with two or three other students, and the tutor discusses the work that one has done for a week, give feedback in details and sets the next week's assignment.

Andrew Marev: As I have already said Scottish universities resemble the classical ones of Europe where students acquired knowledge exclusively by means of lectures and working in libraries. Apart from that students were left alone. No further meetings or any kind of supervision are practiced.

Angela Davidson: In Red Brick universities teaching combines lectures and practical classes (in scientific subjects), small group study in either seminars or tutorials. The British University year is divided into three terms; each term roughly lasts from 8 to 10 weeks. Each term is packed with activity, students go on vocation between the terms. A month at Christmas, a month at Easter, and 3 or 4 months in summer – are mainly periods of intellectual digestion and private study. University courses generally extend over 3 or 4 years, though in medicine, veterinary and dentistry – 5 or 6 years are required. A person studying at the University is called an undergraduate, those who have taken the first degree (B.A. or B.S) are called graduates, and those who are doing further study or research for the degree of Master or Doctor are called post-graduates. Degree titles may vary according to the practice of each University.

(B.A. – Bachelor of Arts; B.B. – Bachelor of Science).

Moderator: Let me once again thank our guests for coming to share their vision of the subject with us. So we got a general outlook of the diversity of British universities. You’ll be informed on our new round table topics on web page. Use its interactive page for your suggestions and criticism. Take care and stay in touch.