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There are ways of maintaining focus; for example, thinking about what the lecturermay say next, or considering the general point he or she may be making. You couldalso think about what has already been covered, and try to sum up the content in afew brief phrases. Sitting near the front of the lecture theatre is another way ofmaintaining focus. This will help you feel more involved and ensure that you can seeand hear, as well as avoid possible distractions.Avoid doing any other work during lecture, even if you think the lecture is boring.Listening to the lecture should be the sole purpose of sitting in the lecture session. Itis costly to do any other activity during the lecture, such as catching up onuncompleted workshop/lab tasks, reading texts or doing assignments. By doing otherwork during lecture time, you have missed the opportunity to interact with thelecturer/tutor in learning the new content being presented, which in turn may result intaking you a longer time to catch up.Ask questions and analyse the messageConsider what else you would like to know about the lecture content beingpresented, and put these questions to the lecturer, if appropriate. If there is noopportunity for questions, write out your queries for your own research, or fordiscussion with the lecturer at the end of the lecture.Take lecture notesThe notes you take during a lecture should provide you with a summary of relevantand important points on the topic being presented. It is impossible to take downevery word and detail that is presented in the lecture, and if you attempt to do thisyou will be unable to listen actively. It is always a good idea to do some pre-readingto prepare for the lecture and listen carefully to the lecturer's introduction. In thisway, you will be more likely to identify the key ideas being presented. If much of thelecture material is available online or in your textbook, your notes should includeminimal detail. If the lecture slides are also available from the unit website, ashortcut is to print the lecture slides beforehand and take them to the lecture as thebasis of your note taking.Listening or note taking?There is a balance between effective listening and note taking. It is recommendedthat you take lecture notes only when your English is good enough to comprehendthe lecture. Otherwise give the highest priority to listening. If you have difficulty inunderstanding the lecture content in some cases, try to work harder at listening andidentifying the main points of the lecture. In any case, never give up on listening tolectures.Asking questions vs. talking/discussion in classroomDon’t be too shy to raise questions in the classroom if you don’t understand or if youneed further explanation of particular concepts. On the other hand, it is a very badhabit to talk irrelevant topics with fellow students during the lecture. This not onlyshows disrespect for the lecturer but also affects other students who are listening tothe lecture.Revision after the lectureRe-reading your lecture slides/notes, preferably on the day of the lecture, willincrease the likelihood of you remembering the key concepts of the lecture.(2) Oral presentation and related skillsOral presentation is usually a final stage of a group assignment or an individualresearch-based assignment (see also “group assignment” in the next section).Most students find it very stressful, even uncomfortable, to speak to a group of142