**4. Methodology**

## **4.1 Context**

The Advanced Speaking Course for Academic Communication (ASCAC) was specifically for postgraduate non-English majors, aiming to integrate English learning into students' research, and provide them with opportunities to practice their conference and seminar presentation and chairing skills. To this end, a variety of activities was practiced in the class, like pair work, group discussion, individual and group presentations on differing topics followed by questions and answers. Example topics for these activities included progress in a project, communication with the supervisor and peers, participation in a lecture/seminar/conference, artificial intelligence, use of technology in different areas, internet and privacy protection, and so forth. The class met once per week for 90 minutes and lasted for 16 weeks.

In order to increase students' exposure to real English speaking scenarios and practice of English speaking, especially English speeches in formal situations, students were encouraged to watch and model on TED talks (www.ted.com) in English at their own paces (TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short and powerful virtual talks, and covers almost all fields, from science and business to global issues, such as collaborative consumption, positive emotion, artificial intelligence, bitcoin and design in life).

## **4.2 Participants**

The participants in this study were 74 doctoral students (57 male, 17 female) enrolled in ASCAC at a university in China. With an age range of 21 to 35 and an average age of 24.73 (SD = 3.47), 62 (83.8%) of the participants were first-year Ph. D students, 10 (13.5%) second-year and 2 (2.7%) third-year Ph.D students. These participants came from various disciplines including natural sciences, engineering, arts and humanities. Of these participants, 7 were randomly invited for informal interviews in an effort to elicit more insider views of AOC anxiety and expectancy-value beliefs of AOC. They all reported having little chance of speaking English outside the English class, 4 reported seldom speaking English in academic situations, 2 spoke English for AOC purpose twice a year and 1 did so one to two times per week.
