Communication: Your Key to Success
One key to your success as a graduate student at Georgia Tech is the confidence to communicate in English — with your professors, with your peers, in the classroom, and in your research. You will collaborate on projects, present your work, and network across the Georgia Tech community. The Georgia Tech Language Institute helps you build the communication skills to do all of it well.
Which program is right for you?
The Language Institute offers three standing programs to build your communication skills. Compare them below, then read the full descriptions further down the page. The Center for Teaching and Learning also offers free communication workshops for international graduate students — see the next section.
| CETL credit courses | Short courses | 700-level IEP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Format | For credit (2 credits) · free to GT grad students | Non-credit | Non-credit |
| Length | One semester | Four weeks | Program-based |
| Focus | Academic writing or oral communication | One skill at a time | All four skills |
| Delivery | Live sessions plus one-on-one meetings | Small interactive group | In person or hybrid |
| Best for | Earning credit toward your degree | Targeted practice, lower commitment | Near-native immersion |
| Register | Through OSCAR | On the Short Courses page | Through the IEP |
Fall 2026 Communication Workshops for International Graduate Students
This fall, the Center for Teaching and Learning offers three free, 90-minute workshops for international graduate students at Georgia Tech. Each workshop stands on its own — attend one or join the full series. Select View details to see the description and learning outcomes.
From Data to Story: Making Your Research Land With Anyone
Learn practical ways to make complex research understandable and engaging for audiences outside your discipline.
STAND and Deliver: Vocal and Physical Presence That Holds the Room
Strengthen the vocal and physical delivery skills that help your ideas land clearly and confidently.
On the Spot: Handling Q&A Under Pressure
Practice a repeatable framework for answering unexpected questions with clarity, structure, and confidence.
From Data to Story: Making Your Research Land With Anyone
From Data to Story is a workshop for international graduate students who want to communicate their work more effectively to audiences outside their discipline. Participants begin by examining how they currently describe their research, identifying where their explanations tend to lose non-specialist listeners. Through guided practice, participants develop a flexible set of tools for connecting complex ideas to different audiences, building explanations that create genuine understanding rather than polite nods. Participants also use AI to pressure-test their explanations before using them on a real audience. By the end of the workshop, participants leave with clearer, more adaptable ways of talking about their work and greater confidence in engaging audiences beyond their field.
Learning outcomes
- Build a working metaphor that makes your expertise understandable to a non-expert.
- Anchor an introduction to your work in the personal story behind it.
- Read when a listener has lost the thread and adjust in real time.
- Use AI to pressure-test explanations before using them on a real audience.
STAND and Deliver: Vocal and Physical Presence That Holds the Room
STAND and Deliver is a workshop for international graduate students who want their spoken delivery to match the quality of their research. The session gives participants five moves, following the STAND model: Stance, Tone, Attention, Natural gesture, and Deliberate pause. Participants practice putting stress on the word that carries the point, pausing so a listener can follow, standing and gesturing with intent, and holding eye contact that connects rather than scans. They leave with a standard for judging vocal and physical presence and a practical sense of how to use AI for targeted practice.
Learning outcomes
- Notice when your stance, voice, or attention is slipping and correct it in the moment.
- Use stress and pause to make the point land.
- Use AI to turn your script into targeted practice.
On the Spot: Handling Q&A Under Pressure
On the Spot is a workshop for international graduate students who want to answer questions with the same clarity and confidence they bring to a prepared talk. The session gives participants four moves, using the S.P.O.T. framework: Steady, Paraphrase, Orient, and Tell. Participants practice pausing before responding, paraphrasing a question to confirm understanding, orienting an answer back to what they know, and telling a structured, point-first answer. Across multiple rounds of live question-and-answer practice, participants also generate practice questions with AI and compare AI's feedback on their own answers against the framework.
Learning outcomes
- Identify what a question is asking, using the S.P.O.T. framework, rather than reacting to its surface wording.
- Build a structured, point-first answer to a question you did not prepare for.
- Recover an answer that has gone off track by orienting back to your own expertise.
- Use AI to generate likely questions and stress-test your answers, weighing AI's feedback against your own judgment.
Semester courses for credit
Each semester, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the College of Lifetime Learning offer credit courses to help international graduate students improve their communication skills in English. These courses are free to Georgia Tech graduate students. Each runs for a full semester and combines live class sessions with individual one-on-one meetings with the instructor.
Academic Writing for International Graduate Students (2 credits)
CETL 8723 · cross-listed as CLL 8802
Learn the cultural conventions of academic and technical writing, along with the principles of organizing ideas clearly, completely, and cohesively. You analyze common errors in advanced academic writing, practice independent proofreading and editing, and meet one-on-one with the instructor. Coursework may include biographies, résumés, and American-style email correspondence, plus optional assignments such as acknowledgments, teaching and research statements, and journal paper reviews.
Questions? Contact Karen Peterson at karen.peterson@lifetimelearning.gatech.edu.
Oral Communication Skills for International Graduate Students (2 credits)
CETL 8797 · cross-listed as CLL 8802
Build the speaking and presentation skills you need for academic and professional settings. Through active, collaborative learning, you practice oral communication approaches and strategies, build confidence in delivering presentations and moderating Q&A sessions, and engage in individual feedback sessions with the instructor.
Questions? Contact Kendall Nelson at kendall.nelson@lifetimelearning.gatech.edu.
Register through OSCAR. Choose your semester, then search the subject code CETL (Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning) or CLL (College of Lifetime Learning).
Register for credit courses on OSCAR
Short courses
The Language Institute also offers four-week, non-credit short courses for focused practice in a single area of English communication — pronunciation, everyday conversation, or professional presentation skills. Each course is $265 and meets in a small, in-person group. For a deeper, semester-long version that earns course credit, see the Oral Communication Skills course (CETL 8797) above.
See course descriptions, pricing, and the current session schedule on the Short-Term Courses page.
700-level Intensive English Program
The 700 level of the Intensive English Program is designed for advanced graduate students who want to strengthen their academic communication at a near-native level. It focuses on the refined reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills you need for graduate coursework, research communication, and professional engagement.
At this level you analyze and evaluate complex academic texts, produce sophisticated and well-organized writing, lead discussions, deliver polished presentations, and handle the nuanced communication that graduate research and professional life demand.
These non-credit courses are available in in-person and hybrid formats, depending on your needs and program eligibility.