English speaking practice for academic researchers

• A conference talk, especially the first minute and the last.
• Questions after a talk, including the long, unclear ones.
• Meetings with your supervisor or principal investigator, where you report progress and sometimes need to disagree.
• Seminars and reading groups, where you have to join a discussion that’s already moving.
• Explaining your research in two minutes to someone outside your field, at a poster session, over dinner or in a job interview.
• A viva, a thesis defence or a job talk, if one is coming up.

Before you polish a conference talk, practise the two-minute version for a non-specialist: the question you are asking, why it matters, and what you found or expect to find. Once you can say that clearly in English, the technical version gets easier, because you have already found the sentences that carry the argument.

A language teacher is a useful listener for this exactly because they aren’t in your field. If they can follow it, most of your audience can.

You can rehearse a talk on your own. You can’t rehearse questions on your own. Ask your teacher to play the audience, including the person whose long question is really a comment. A few phrases help you stay in control:

• "If I’ve understood, you’re asking whether..."
• "That’s outside what I looked at, but my guess would be..."
• "I don’t know. I’d want to check before I answer."
• "Could you say a little more about what you mean by...?"

A clear "I don’t know" is better than a long answer that drifts. Practise saying it without apologising.

1. Give the first two minutes of your talk as you plan to on the day. Your teacher listens for anything that gets in the way: unclear words, stress in the wrong place, speed.
2. Work on those points, then give the opening again.
3. Take ten minutes of questions, with your teacher as the audience.
4. Go back over the hardest answers and find shorter ways to say them.
5. Finish with the two-minute explanation for a non-specialist.

Send your slides or abstract ahead if you can. Your teacher can’t check your research, but they can show you where the English gets in its way.

Nattive teachers hold a teaching certificate or a degree. That doesn’t make them experts in your discipline, and you don’t need them to be: you are the expert on the content. Look for a teacher who takes learners at your level, and watch their intro video to find a voice and pace you follow easily. If a teacher’s profile mentions academic work of their own, that can help with the habits of seminars and supervision. Message them before you book if you want to check.

You pay per lesson in GBP, with no subscription, so you can book lessons around a conference date and stop afterwards. Our Learn English page has more about learning English on Nattive.

10% of the teacher’s lesson price, included in the one price you see, goes to Nattive Classroom. It’s pooled until there’s enough for the next course: 8 hours of free group English courses for a small group of up to five learners in developing countries, with a teacher paid for every hour. Places are for learners in the developing countries we select for the programme, subject to funding and places. We’re building the first course now, and we’ll publish what has been funded and taught as it happens. See how Classroom funding works on Our impact.