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Speaking Language

The document provides a comprehensive guide on expressing personal opinions and engaging in discussions in English. It includes various phrases for agreeing, disagreeing, moving discussions forward, summarizing, and critiquing ideas. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of polite disagreement and offers strategies for effectively communicating differing viewpoints.

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kuanhing52
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1 views

Speaking Language

The document provides a comprehensive guide on expressing personal opinions and engaging in discussions in English. It includes various phrases for agreeing, disagreeing, moving discussions forward, summarizing, and critiquing ideas. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of polite disagreement and offers strategies for effectively communicating differing viewpoints.

Uploaded by

kuanhing52
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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(e.g.

, I think we need to have non-fossil fuel emitting vehicles like these to solve the
energy crisis.’)

Language Focus: Core Area for Learning: Spoken Language (SL): Expressing
personal opinions

I think…. My impression is that…. Personally, I think….

I believe…. I hold the view that…. I’d like to point out


that….
I feel…. It seems to me that….
Generally, it is thought
I suppose…. From my perspective….
that….
From my point of view….
I guess….
From my view point…. Some people say that….
In my view…. Well, it is considered
As far as I’m concerned….
In my opinion….…. that…. It is generally
accepted that….
I’m of the opinion that….

You will continue to use these phrases in throughout this unit and the course.
Consider the style of the language in the extracts below and compare them to the
language style of the table above. Do you think each one comes from a spoken
debate/discussion or a written summary?

1. In an article I read last week, it 5. Ellis claims in her paper that….


reported that…. 6. The Economist pointed out
2. One report on the effects of VR that…
concluded that… 7. In a study reported in The
3. Smith (2019) argued that…. Economist, there are…
4. According to a 2019 article from 8. Research shows that… (Smith,
the BBC, there are… 2019).

For discussions conducted in English: Review English language discussion phrases

General phrases for discussion

Expressing I think…
opinions
For me…
I reckon…

I guess…

In my opinion…

Expressing That’s a good idea.


agreement
That sounds good.
and
disagreement Fair point.
Definitely.

I don’t think I agree with that.

I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

Sorry I have to disagree.

Not really.

Moving the How about if…


discussion
What do you think about …?
forward to a
new topic How about we consider…

What if we…

If we consider…

We’ve probably discussed this point enough.

Could I suggest moving on now?

Let’s move on to…

Summarising So, what have we decided?


and
Let’s try to wrap this up.
concluding a
discussion We’ve agreed that …

We all think that…


Critiquing other people’s ideas

introduce We are talking about very short-term issues here. What if we think
different more long-term?
perspectives
We are talking about a social perspective here. What about the
environmental or economic angle?

Perhaps, but only for young people. That probably doesn’t apply to
older people, because…

Maybe, but this is just about developed countries. I imagine that in


developing countries there is…

challenge Why do you think that?


someone else’s
I don’t think so.
ideas
But I would argue that…

Actually, that’s not necessarily true because….

using evidence to Maybe, but I’ve actually read something different about that.
challenge/suppor
That reminds me of an article I read about xxx. It was saying that….
t ideas
Yes, I remember hearing on the news recently that….

ask questions that Could we think of this another way?


prompt people to
Is there another way of looking at this question?
consider other
possibilities Do you think we are covering all the angles?

Disagreeing can be a problem. It’s a problem mostly because people often speak
before they think things through. You may be trying to disprove another speaker’s
point, but it is also important to disagree politely. Try the following three steps:
1. I can see your point. However, …
Acknowledg That’s a good point, but …
e the other
I see what you’re getting at, but …
person’s
point I get where you’re coming from, but…
I see what you mean. However, …
Perhaps, but …

2. Explain why That’s not always the case because …


you disagree That’s not necessarily true because …
This idea isn’t supported by evidence / data …
I thought the author in fact meant …

3. Offer your From what I’ve read …


own The data (statistics) seem to indicate that …
position,
I think what (author’s name) may be actually suggesting is …
with reasons
and support Other studies by (author’s name) show that …

Agreeing is easier than disagreeing: it is often enough just to say “yes”, or simply to
nod. However, if you disagree, you will be expected to explain why you think the
speaker is wrong – without causing offence. The most common way of signaling
disagreement is to begin, “But…”.

Agreeing Partly agreeing

Yes. Yes, OK, but…

Yes, that’s right. I see what you mean, but…

Yes, I agree. I accept that, but…

That’s a good point. That’s what I think. That may be true, but…

I take your point, but…


Expressing doubt Disagreeing

I’m not sure about that. But… /But surely… /But don’t you
think…?
Is there any evidence for that?
But you can’t really mean…?
Why do you think that?
But there’s no evidence for that.

But that goes against…

But what about…?

I don’t (really) agree (with you) (that)…

I don’t think that’s right.

I don’t see how you can say…

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