Name in English: Henry

Name in Chinese: 王修志，WANG Xiuzhi

Programme/Major: Environmental Science

Cohort: 2013

Academic achievement /Career development: First-year PhD student

Courses learned and/or activities participated:

Courses:

• English I/II/III (2013-2015)

• Academic Reading and Writing (2014)

• Project Presentation (2016)

Activities:

• English clubs (2013)

• English speaking corner (2013)

• Champion of 5th Choral Speaking Competition (2014)

The ELC provides a comprehensive English tutorial system for UIC students from Year 1 to Year 4. I benefited from the courses and activities provided by ELC very much.

The English course from Year 1 to Year 3 continuously enhanced my English skills. My speaking, listening, reading, and writing have improved a lot. All the lecturers were passionate and patient with students, which encouraged me to talk and be active in class.

As a science student who had to write a lot of scientific reports and papers, academic writing training was very important to me. For academic English, ELC offered courses "Academic Reading and Writing" and "Project Presentation" for us. These two courses taught me proper language for writing formal academic papers, as well as the skills of literature search, research design, structuring a scientific article, and so on. During my Ph.D. study, I was required to take an academic writing course. At that time, I surprisingly found that most of the course content had already been covered in UIC English courses. UIC did provide me with the academic English training I need for further study.

Besides the courses, ELC also provided additional services to help us improve English skills. I used to book the Writing Resource Centre (WRC) service for polishing my essays. Talking with ELC foreign interns in the English Speaking Corner allowed me to gain the courage to communicate with others in English. Winning the first place in a choral speaking competition with my classmates had introduced me to the wonders of the English language.

In all, ELC has equipped me with strong English abilities for academic research and communication with native speakers.