Hi everybody

I just found this forum and wanted to express a fear I have for my approaching VIVA in about 14 days. I am a non-native speaker in English and my English is rather poor in comparison with with someone born in the UK.
I been in my home country for the last two years and have finally submitted and will have to go and defend.
My biggest fear is that I can't find the words to express and defend my thesis to a degree that would be considered acceptable.
Anybody in here who has been in a similar situation ? I am also not a very confident speaker in general so combined with poor English skills I am sure it will be horrible. I have a tendency to give short answers instead of reflecting about the answers because I an never able to find the right expression so I quickly say something which makes me appear insecure and not to trustworthy.

If anybody have any similar problem or things to add that might help me I'd appreciate it
C

======= Date Modified 26 Nov 2011 19:53:31 =======
Hello,

Sorry I can't really help you, but just wanted to support you ... I am a non-native speaker as well and my spoken english is not great ...
I'm only in the 2nd year of my PhD so I will have time to prepare my VIVA.
If I were you, I would prepare some 'key words' in English that are related to your work, I would prepare some sentences etc .... There are a lot of foreign students doing PhD in the UK and I guess examiners are use to that ...so don't worry, i'm sure you'll do fine !

Hello CamX,

First of all well done for submitting and good luck with your forthcoming viva.

I understand your anxiety, as I am not a native speaker myself. I think that the issue of foreign students and language skills has been the object of debate somewhere else in the forum. You can probably still trace the thread.

I think that there are several ways to improve your oral skills, although I understand that you are now very close to the viva.

Firstly, you wrote a thesis and thus you certainly built up your knowledge of the language and the use of academic jargon. I suppose that your supervisor/s and or other academics had the opportunity to read it and provide you with feedback on this.

You read a huge amount of relevant literature, and surely at least a part of this was in English - and thus all this feeds into language learning, even if you didn't realise it.

Did you have any chance to present papers at seminars or conferences? If so, this is an excellent way to practice. If not, do take any chance to speak about your research with colleagues or friends now. Do you have the chance to organise a mock viva? You don't say if you are going to travel back to the UK for the exam or if you will be using skype. In any case, you can ask your supervisor to help you with this.

Last, but not least: Is there a Language Centre at your university or where are you know? It worth checking if there are any opportunities for practice there.

HI

Thanks to both of you for taking your time to write a reply. It means allot to me :-). I Always felt stressed around my supervisor who always complained about my English and the way I present things at talks and even poster presentations etc--maybe he felt that was his job to do so---however it had the opposite effect on me. Today I feel worse about my presentation skills than before I met him and it is this insecurity I have to overcome before the VIVA or else I will give a horrible defend....Just the fact that he will be present at the VIVA will be an annoyance.

I do think practice is the best way forwards and I am spending as much time as I can presenting with friends and family.
I will look though older threat...thanks for the advise :-)

======= Date Modified 28 Nov 2011 09:53:05 =======
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======= Date Modified 27 Nov 2011 08:02:18 =======
Sorry, no help to you too

Hi there!

Congrats on submitting!

Just to add to the suggestions already given, it may be helpful to prepare a bullet point list of sentences you may want to use as well.

Also I'd imagine that the examiners would be aware that English is not your first language and that, like most of us, you'll be nervous during the viva so I'd like to think that they'd take these in consideration as well.

But very importantly (and serious!) remember to breathe and give yourself a break too, words can sometimes 'disappear' from our heads when we're nervous regardless of the language we're speaking.

Good luck with the viva and let us know how it goes!

Hi

I am not a native speaker too, but generally I prefer to talk/write about my research area in English, as I am more familiar with the technical vocabulary, and there are a few things I don't think I can translate to my mother tongue.

I don't think you would have a problem. To be honest the majority of PhD students and researchers is non-native speakers presenting in conferences etc. Moreover, if you were capable of writing it, you are more than capable of defending it.

Another thing is the accent. I have noticed that people struggle in the beginning with my accent, after a while they get used to it.

I don't think you will have a problem. I had my upgrade recently, everyone in the panel was British but me, and it went fine.