Eugenia Tomilova, a postgraduate student of Chemistry Department working under the supervision of Ass. Prof. Viktor Malkov, delivered an English-language lecture for the undergraduate students participating in the project “Foreign language competence development of TSU students.”
The lecture was devoted to the stages of designing a medicine: from making complicated organic moleculesto selecting the synthesis path, analyzing the substance obtained, and certifying the final product. Eugenia cast light on each stage thoroughly and informatively, and also told several stories related to the history of pharmacology and to her personal experience. She managed touse the communicative strategies for an academic lecture, which she studied in thecompulsory English course. After the lecture, students briefly answered the questions of the young lecturer.
Eugenia Tomilova: It is quite interesting to tell something in a foreign language. Often, it is not so easy to deliver the material in your native language, and if you do it in a foreign language, you have to be even more careful in choosing and structuring information. This encourages you to motivate the listeners, to find not only useful, but also interesting and comprehensive material. Ideally, I would like the listener to perceive the information naturally and easily, without being distracted by the language barrier. I think it can be mastered with practice. For the listener, this is a good practice and the opportunity to learn a lot of useful information. For the speaker, this is an opportunity to develop or acquire "soft skills", which is now very much appreciated in the job market. In addition, it is no secret that in the process of preparing for the report, the lecturer revises a large amount of material and improves his own theoretical background.