Speaking Active discussions Useful phrases Giving opinions Giving evidence For instance... For example... (Author's name) states that... Statistics from (source) indicate... I think that... It seems to me that... As far as I'm concerned... Giving reasons This is due to... Because/Since... Due to the fact that... As a result of... As a consequence of... Agreeing Yes. Yes, that’s right. Yes, I agree with you. I agree (with/that)... That’s what I think too. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Asking for opinions Disagreeing Acknowledging ideas Yes, OK, but... I see what you mean, but... I accept that, but... That may be true, but... I take your point, but... I can see your point. However... That’s a good point, but I see what you're getting at, but... I see where you're coming from, but... I agree up to a point, but... Yes, but what about... Sensitivity: Internal What do you think? What do you think about...? What’s your opinion about...? How do you feel about...? What about you? I’m not sure that’s right. I wouldn’t say that. I'm not so sure about that. But (surely)... But don’t you think... That's not always the case because... That's not necessarily true because... This idea isn't supported by the evidence... Any other useful phrases you can think of? Speaking Active discussions Setting aims Our goal for this conversation is... Our aim today is to... Setting the timetable We'll spend the first fifteen minutes discussing, and the last five coming to a decision. Summing up So, to sum up... We're running out of time, so... So, it seems that, as a group, we've decided... All things considered, we feel that... We couldn't reach an agreement on this issue... Although we agree that..., we still stress that... References Eapfoundation (2019) Taking part in academic discussions. [online] Available at: https://www.eapfoundation.com/speaking/discussions/participate/ Accessed on 05/03/2020. McCormack, J.and Watkins, S. (2012). Speaking. Reading: Garnet. UNSW Sydney (2014). Guide to Discussion Skills. Available from https://student.unsw.edu.au/discussion-skills (access date 17 July, 2015). Wallace, M.J. (2004). Unit 5 from Study Skills in English. Cambridge: CUP. Sensitivity: Internal