Jazz Up Your Lesson
Speech Connectors
Speech connectors are those little words that mean so much. They are the ones that make our speech smooth and logical, help to introduce our opinions, make additions, corrections, alterations and what not!
Here are some examples of how you can train in using them.
This is a sample list of speech connectors that you may want to teach your students:
I think
I suppose
I may assume
By the way
Actually
Eventually
Indeed
(Un)fortunately
I agree that
In my (humble) opinion
To my mind
On the contrary
I’m afraid I can’t agree with that
As for me
As far as I’m concerned
As far as I can judge
As far as I know
On one hand … on the other hand
To be honest
To tell the truth
Frankly speaking
If you ask me
What I mean is
Anyway
Most likely that
Meanwhile
In any case
I’d like to highlight the following
I’d like to note
I have found that
Individual Work
Ask the students to write a sentence with every word/word combination above on the topic: “My Best Friend”.
Pair Work
Ask the students to work in pairs so that one student monitors the other.
If your students are elementary level – the topic might be the same as in individual work; in case your students are more advanced – change the topic for “My Flat” for instance. In this type of work only one student gets the sheet of paper with the words (speech connectors) and the other students start to talk. The person with the words listens and counts how many speech connectors the other one remembers. Then they change places and repeat.
Group Work
Now everybody has the list of expressions in front of them and the topic is announced. It might be “My Holiday Trip”, “My Family”, “My Favourite Book/Film”, etc.
Ask your students to create a snowball story using all the linking expressions in the list one by one. The students may be pretty frivolous with the plot, but the obligatory rule is not to miss a single expression.
Team Work
Divide the students in 2 groups. Take the sheets of paper with linking expressions away from them.
Now give them a fixed amount of time to try to remember all the expressions from the list. The order is not important.
The winner is the team that remembers the most speech connectors.
You may do the same tasks with useful conversational phrases that help to disagree politely:
Well, I need to disagree
That is not really how I see the issue
I think you are mistaken
If you do not mind my saying so, you are not quite right here
I can not really go along with you here
I haven’t heard of that
I see your point but
I see what you mean but
I do not know exactly but
I suspect that this might not be quite true
I guess it would make more sense to do the opposite
We do not see eye to eye on this issue, I’m afraid
I’m afraid you are not right
We could offer another variant
Task
Match the following word combinations:
| 1. I can not | a. how I see the issue |
| 2. I see your point | b. what you mean but |
| 3. I need | c. you are mistaken |
| 4. I guess it would make | d. not be quite true |
| 5. I suspect that this might | e. you are not right |
| 6. It is not really | f. go along with you here |
| 7. I’m afraid | g. nothing to me |
| 8. I see | h. more sense to do the opposite |
| 9. I presume | i. to disagree |
| 10. It says | j. but |
| 11. I could offer | k. know exactly but |
| 12. We do not see | l. another variant |
| 13. I do not | m. eye to eye on this problem |
Key: 1. f; 2. j; 3. i; 4. h; 5. d; 6. a; 7. e; 8. b; 9. c; 10. g; 11. l; 12. m; 13. k