English for conducting
meetings and interviews
Tolipov N.
B2 group
Learning Objectives
 Understand the different types of meeting that can be held
and and the objectives that can be achieved through them.
 Able to run a professional meeting from A to Z.
 Become more productive and efficient during meetings.
 Confidently voice your opinion and be heard.
 Learn different ways to engage your attendees and get them
to work together.
 Deal with difficult situations that arise in meetings.
 A simple and effective process for looking at information and
problems.
 Apply critical thinking to some real cases and questions we
face.
Agenda
 A well-organized meeting will have an agenda – that’s a list of topics
that will be discussed. In some meetings, one person keeps notes that
will be the official record of the meeting.
 Why hold a meeting? There are many different reasons. One is
to brainstorm. “Brainstorming” is creating a lot of different ideas, so that
they can later be analyzed, evaluated, and the best ones can be
selected. Brainstorming is often done as a first step in a project, before
there is a definite plan.
 Another reason to hold a meeting is to develop a strategy and allocate
tasks.

Meetings are also held to collaborate (work together) on projects and
give updates – reports of progress and current status. Finally, meetings
are held to make decisions.
 Some meetings use a formal system of voting, in which a decision is
made if it receives the majority (more than 50%) of the votes. Other
meetings use a less formal system of decision-making, aiming for the
group to come to a consensus (a general agreement).
Welcoming Phrases
Welcome, everyone. Today’s meeting is
about…
Welcome to today’s meeting. These are
the issues that we want to talk about.
Welcome, everyone. This is our agenda.
Welcome, everyone. The purpose of
today’s meeting is…
Welcome, everyone. The meeting today
is going to last no more than an hour.
Welcome, everyone. Thank you all for
attending (at such short notice).
Interviews
Interviews also require special
preparation. An interview
can accomplish many
purposes. It can be used to:
 gather information
 deliver information,
 counsel and motivate,
 call people to positions,
 receive reports of
stewardships,
 teach principles and
doctrine,
 determine worthiness.
Contact the person.
 Excuse me, may I ask you something?
 Hello, this is Maria. I'd like to interview
you about your family.
 Could I please have a few minutes of
your time?
 Are you interested in participating in a
interview?
 Would you mind answering a few
questions?
 Hi! I'm conducting interviews about
people's career choices for my class.
Could I ask you a few questions?
Be prepared.
 What education and background experience did you need for your career?
(general)
 What do you like and dislike about your career? (general)
 What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue this career?
(specific)
 If you could do anything differently in your career, what would it be? (specific)