I want students first and foremost to have the experience of what it's like standing up there talking about something you know well. This is something important for their own academic goals and also, I'm finding more and more, their work goals. I want them to get experience in the academic environment. An academic environment means that you present something, you stand up and you talk about it, and you present a summary of it later. And you do research about it and put that all together. Obviously, it increases literacy. They have to read and write about all of this. It improves their English skills. They have to talk about it, they have to write about it, and they have to go back and correct their grammar. Most of all, what I try to give students in this class is model experiences in a safe way so that they can go out and try it in a place where it is not so safe.
