Cultural Note. You probably find yourself in situations where there are conversations or discussions among three or more people

You probably find yourself in situations where there are conversations or discussions among three or more people. These include class discussions, meetings at work, and social conversations. It is often difficult for non-native speakers of English to participate in group discussions and conversations when the others are native speakers of English.

It is not always possible to follow the conversation in a group discussion or meeting. You can be more prepared if you know certain phases to get into a conversation and if you try to use them. You can also remind people, both directly and indirectly, that you are non-native speaker of English and that group discussions or meetings are sometimes difficult to follow. The following list includes ways to help you participate in and understand meetings and group discussions.

1 Find a person who can help you understand a meeting or group discussion while it is going on and after it has ended.

2 Tape record meetings and discussions whenever possible.

3 If it is a meeting at work, for example, have your supervisor show you the agenda before the meeting starts.

4 Know and use phrases for getting into conversations.

5 Be willing to participate even if you are not used to speaking up in a group.

Using the skills of holding your turn and interrupting can be very important in a group interaction, especially if you are the only non-native speaker of English. Sometimes it is necessary to interrupt quickly before the topic of conversation changes.

There are several ways how to get into a group conversation. When you want to get into, or break into a group conversation, you have to wait for a pause and then interrupt quickly. You should use the interruption phrases.

 

a) Phrases and Expressions for Getting into a Group Conversation

“Excuse me. I have something to add here”.

“Uhm… I have a question about that.”

“Could I ask a question?”

“Could I interrupt for a quick second?”

“Just a quick interruption”.

 

You could interrupt, hold your turn and then say what you want to say.

“So… this is what we need to do”.

“Do you mean, uh…?

“Can you tell me…?”

“Uh, I’d like to know…”

“I can add something here…”

“Ah, you know…”

“Well… you know…”

If you miss the chance to say what you want to say, you can often go back to it later in the conversation.

 

a) Phrases and Expressions for Going back to Earlier Topics:

“Going back to what we were talking about earlier…”

“Could we go back to [state the topic] that we were discussing earlier?”

“I had a question earlier about [state the topic].”

“I wanted to add something to what we were saying earlier.”

To be an active participant in group discussions or meetings you should do the following:

Initiate Begin discussion, bring up new ideas and topics, and make

suggestions

Ask Ask people for opinions, information and explanations.

Offer Offer opinions and give information when needed.

Repeat Repeat ideas, information and explanations for the rest of the

group when something has not been understood.

Summarize Summarize information to make sure that something has been

understood.

Encourage Encourage people to speak by being cooperative and by

accepting different points of view.

Following are some examples of each:

Interacting in a Group

Initiate

“I have an idea about how we could solve the problem.”

“May I make a suggestion?”

“One solution of the problem might be to talk to Mr. Jones about it.”

“Perhaps we could begin by discussing our problem”.

“Could I suggest that we get everyone’s opinion on that?”

Ask

“Ms. Smith, could you tell us what you think?

“I’m not clear about this. Could someone explain it to me?”

“I missed the explanation. Would you mind repeating it?”

“Mr. Water, would you mind telling us a little bit more about your experiences with this type of problem?”

“Does anyone know some more about this?”

 

Offer

“I believe that there isn’t much more we can do.”

“In my opinion there are only two choices.”

“It seems to me that the only solution is to lower the prices.”

“My feeling is that we should go ahead and buy the product.”

“I can show you the numbers, if that will help.”

Repeat

“Can I repeat that for anyone?”

“I’m not sure if everyone heard. Let me repeat that.”