Our Effective Speaking courses provide doctoral students with practical training in successful oral communication. The courses focus on aspects of speaking such as audience awareness, voice control, vocabulary control, signposting, and body language. We consider how to achieve greater clarity and impact by exploring the language and strategies to do this.
The sessions give you the space to rehearse speaking activities such as presentations and vivas, as well as the day-to-day interactions of academic life. The aim is to upgrade your oral communication through intensive practice, directed peer review and detailed feedback.
All Effective Speaking courses run for 4 weeks (90 minutes once a week).
- Each week your teacher will notify you by email if there is any specific preparation for the upcoming session, though this will typically take no more than 30 minutes.
- The group will then meet for a 90-minute live session in which you will have the opportunity to speak (usually in small groups), receive feedback and develop the effectiveness of your oral communication. Sessions focus on both specific tasks and key speaking skills.
- After each session, you will be encouraged to reflect on feedback received in the session (from your peers and your teacher), to build on this and to further practise in order to hone your skills. This can take a further 30 minutes.
Please make sure you register for the course that corresponds to the stage of your doctoral programme (e.g. if you're in your final year, you should register for Effective Speaking 3).
Effective Speaking 1 and Effective Speaking 2
Effective Speaking 1: starting out with confidence
To guide and support first-year doctoral students during the early months of their doctoral programme.
You will focus on:
- explaining your research in a coherent, accessible way
- rehearsing for discussions that may take place as you develop your project plan
- explaining key concepts orally
- adapting explanations and content to the knowledge base of the listener
- outlining your project plan as it evolves
Effective Speaking 2: succeeding at the ESA viva
To prepare doctoral students who have completed at least 5 months of their programme for activities in the run up to their Early Stage Assessment (ESA).
You will focus on being both precise and concise in:
- speaking about your research area and identifying connections with the research of others
- discussing gaps in the literature
- outlining methodologies you plan to adopt
- giving a detailed technical explanation of your work
- practising answering questions
Effective presentation skills and Effective Speaking 3
Effective Speaking 3
To prepare 3rd or 4th year doctoral students for a range of activities in the final stages of their PhD.
You will have the opportunity to:
- practise networking and consider how to use networking as an opportunity to further your career
- prepare for attending conferences (asking questions and presenting)
- prepare for your viva and use this viva preparation to explore how to deal with challenging questions
- practise through role play, prepared speaking tasks (the elevator pitch) and discussing approaches to these through pair work and group discussion
Effective Presentation Skills: presenting with impact
To help doctoral students achieve confident and competent communication of their research to a live audience.
The course focuses on:
- voice control and clarity
- building confidence and speaking with impact
- designing effective PowerPoint slides
- responding flexibly to your audience
- performance evaluation
Spring term 2026 sessions
| Course | Day | Dates | Time | Course registration link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effective Speaking 1 | Thursday | 22 January - 12 February 2026 | 14.00 - 15.30 | Registration will open on Monday 8 December 2026. |
| Effective Speaking 2 | Thursday | 19 February - 12 March 2026 | 14.00 - 15.30 | Registration will open on Monday 26 January 2026. |
Summer term 2026 sessions
Effective Presentation Skills (details to be confirmed)
Effective Speaking 2 (details to be confirmed)
In addition to taking advantage of our doctoral speaking courses, why not:
Imperial Business School requests that their students and staff contact their Global Skills Development team about their equivalent to the Centre for Academic English provision.