Comunicative english

Speaking effectively in discussion
REVISION
Greeting
Hi, I’m …
Good morning /afternoon/ evening/ day, I’m …
Hello, I’m John and you are …
Hey! Sam here and you …?
Find common topic to talk about
Never ask private questions.
Should talk about the weather, living environment, job …
Weather: “I like the weather now, do you?” – “It is getting cooler and cooler, isn’t it?”
Living environment: “where do you stay in Vietnam?” – “Are you staying in hostel or in a rented house?”
Job: “What are you doing now?”
Take your leave when you decide you have finished talking or have to go 
Oh gosh! I’d better go off now! See you later.
I’ve got to talk to others now. Bye!
Time really flies speaking to you. Talk to you some other time! (Time flies Ving)
It’s lovely to talk to you. I must go now. See ya.( see you again)
Introducing others
The handsome, young man here is…
The attractive lady here is… 
I’d like to introduce…. 
The one sitting next to me is… 
May I present…. 
This is …… 
Let me introduce…
*** Use their titles followed by their surnames.
President; Professor; Dr.; Dean Mr. (may be married or unmarried); Mrs. (married); Ms. (may be married or unmarried);Miss (unmarried); Madam(may be married or unmarried; address indicating rank) 
Agreeing
That’s good.
You’re correct.
I agree with you.
Absolutely right.
Definitely. 
Disagreeing
I see what you mean, but ...
That`s true, but on the other hand ...
The problem with that is…
That idea is not really good… 

The most common way to disagree is to agree or indicate that you understand what the person has said and then disagree.  
Asking for repetition
Would you mind repeating…?
Please mention that point you’ve just made…
Could you say it again?
Pardon?
I beg your pardon?
Asking for clarification
What is it? Please tell me again. 
What do you mean?
Is that what you mean?
Will you elaborate on what you mean by…?
I’m kind of confused about what you are saying….Do you mean…?
Could you explain more about..?
I don’t really understand. Will you care to elaborate?
So what you are really saying… 
Asking for ideas/opinions
What do you think about that…(name)?
Do you have any ideas/opinions?
How about you?
What is your take on this matter/issue?
Anything you deem important?
Any thoughts, anyone? 
To begin/start a discussion
Let’s discuss about….
We need to talk about…
We will first look at….
The main thing to discuss is…
It seems that we have to talk about…
Let’s deal with the important issues…
The question here is asking us to..
The problem to solve here is….
The first thing is that… 
Putting your ideas/opinions across
I think that…
What I believe is that…
My point is that…
What I understand is that…
It seems that…
I suggest that we… 
Responding to someone interrupting you
Let me finish what I am saying…
Hold on…
I haven’t said what I wanted to yet..
Hang on...let me finish what I have to say… 
Interrupting another speaker
Excuse me...but…
I’m sorry …but…
Wait a minute…
Hang on….
Sorry but can I put my point across?
May I interrupt….?
 Sorry, could I just ask...

Sorry to interrupt, but ...
Sorry, could I just ask…
Excuse me for interrupting, but..
Can I add here that…
Can I add something?
Can I say something?
I’d like to say something if I may.
Rephrasing
So, what you mean is….
That is like…
In other words…
Then, it is like…. 
Checking
Are you with me?

Are you still with me?
Is that clear?
Okay so far?
Have you got it/that?
Do you understand so far? 
Hesitating
Well, um..
Well, let’s see..
Mmm, I’ll have to think about that.
Good/interesting question.
Well, what is your opinion?
Taking things into consideration
Bearing in mind…
Considering…
If you remember…
Allowing for the fact..
When you consider that… 
Moving on to the next issue
Let’s move on to…
What is the next thing we should be discussing about?
Let’s go on to what’s next…
Should we go on to…? 
Going back to the topic of discussion
We are out of point. Let’s focus…
Is this the topic we are discussing about?
Are we supposed to be talking about..?
Let’s get back to the point of discussion… 
Wait. Let’s go back to…
What was the point we’ve mentioned before? Let’s discuss
that again..
Hang on, not so fast. Let’s go back to…
Should we go back to the point you made earlier..? 
Illustrating your point
For example,..
For instance,…
Take for example…
For one thing…
To give you an idea..
By way of illustration… 

Closing and summarizing
That’s all then.
We’ve finished our discussion.
Alright, we’re done. 
So, we have discussed about…
In summary,… In conclusion, … To sum up,… In general,…
Providing alternatives
Also, …
Another way of looking at this is…
On the other hand…
Yes, but…
Alternatively...