Introducing Learned Lectures
Providing listening material for science and engineering majors

Authentic• We are looking more atcontent and a less at ‘perfect’English.
* Presentations given by native andnon-native speakers of English.
• Presentations are not overly
polished.
* Contain features of spoken
English (e.g. redundancy and falsestarts).

The Problem
While designing an ESP curriculum for materials science students, theamount of freely available listening material that met criteria set by theauthors (authentic, representative, content-specific, appropriate length,
and at the appropriate level) was found to be extremely limited, comparedto the more readily available and researched area of authentic writtenmaterial.

They were then measured against the criteria mentioned above:• Authentic - Linguistically authentic• Representative - Contextually authentic• Content Specific - Science and engineering content• Length Appropriate - 10 to 15 minutes of extended listening• Level Appropriate - Language and content comprehensible
So, how do these resources fare in regard to these criteria.
ContentLengthLevel
SpecificAppropriate
AppropriateEFLXXXXOPresentationOXOOOXContentOOOXXIn the above table, ‘X’ represents absent or predominately absent from possible content in
the established resource area. Conversely, ‘O’ represents present or predominately present. In
instances where certain criteria might fall more on a greater range of availability, ‘XO’ is used.
It should be noted that the above table is meant as a general representation of the possible
resources listed in each category (EFL, Presentation, or Content).
Authentic

Representative

Our Proposed Solution
An online self-access databaseof lectures in English calledLearned Lectures: science &engineering lectures for English
language learners.
• Relevant, content specificlistening materials, to assist
science and engineering indeveloping and improving theirlistening skills.
To that effect, this ESP listening
resource will address the fivecriteria identified above in the following ways:

So far, so...

Representative• Lectures given by faculty, and graduate or PhD students.
* Presenters know their audience are fellow engineers/scientists and do not overly
grade their vocabulary. Furthermore, most presentations are structured likeacademic presentations.
Content Specific• Lectures can be on current research or research conducted in the past, anintroduction to a fundamental concept from engineering or science, orsomething that the lecturer finds interesting (e.g. perhaps a comparisonof damage in the Tohoku and Hanshin earthquakes).
* Lectures are searchable by key words and separated by field for ease of access.
* The intellectual property of the lecture remains with the lecturer, whereas
the product of the lecture (video, audio, transcript, instructional materials,etc.) remains with this project and is available, through a Creative Commonslicense, to anyone who wishes to use it.
Length Appropriate• Lectures are roughly 10 to 15 minutes.
* Although not representative of a full classroom/conference lecture,presentations present an adequate extended listening opportunity.
Level Appropriate• Provide vocabulary profile to help students choose level-appropriate texts.
* Each presentation is transcribed and contains captions to aid comprehension.

As with any endeavor, some things go as expected, some things go awry,
and some things come out of left field.
...good• To date, four people
have contributed to theproject, and anotherthree more are preparing
to give a lecture.
• Participants in the projectso far have found theexperience
rewardingand insightful.
• A few faculty membersin the Graduate SchoolofEngineeringatour institution havedecided to use the site as
supplemental listening
material in the upcoming term.
...badThe three main issues we have faced have been:• Have received positive comments and some support from faculty andgraduate/PhD students inside and outside our institution; however,the number of people that have actually contributed to the project issmall. Maybe we need an ice bucket challenge.
• Identifying and becoming proficient at using the hardware and softwaretools necessary to create, edit, and distribute the lectures.
• Keeping the project open and available to anyone to use has meant wehave no internal funding for the project from our institution.

The Process

Looking Ahead

The process really starts with someone offering to record a lecture.
• Next, we arrange a convenient time tovideo the lecture.
• Next, we transcribe the lecture, prepare
subtitle files, and do any necessary editingon the lecture.
• Next, a lecture vocabulary profile is createdusing LexTutor’s VocabProfiler tool
(www.lextutor.ca).
* We are grateful to receive permission to use
their tools.

We would like to have a database of 25 to 40 lectures by the end of the2014 academic year. We are also looking to collect data from participantsin the aforementioned upcoming course where the Learned Lecture Series
will be used.

Possible Solutions
In addressing the listening material needs for the ESP materials science
course, the following three established options were considered:• Established EFL listening resources like Randall’s ESL CyberListening Lab (www.esl-lab.com) or elllo (www.elllo.org).
• Established presentation resources like Three Minute Thesis(www.threeminutethesis.org) or Ted Talks (www.ted.com/talks).
• Established content-specific resources like MIT Open Courseware(www.ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) or Apple’s iTunes U.

• The vocabulary profile is then appended to the end of the transcript.
• Finally, we upload everything to YouTube and to the Learned Lecture
Series website.

Contact Information

Samuel Barclay: samuelcbarclay@gmail.com
Roderick Lange: lange.roderick_lee.nb@ehime-u.ac.jp

www.learnedlectures.com