Chair –interrupting

OK. John, if I could just interrupt you there…
Mary, sorry but I’ like to hear some other views on this.
Ok. Thank you, Bob. You’ve made your point.

Chair- stopping an interruption

Just a moment, Peter. I’ll come back to you when Mary has finished.
We can’t all speak at once. One at a time, please. Peter, you wanted to…?
Please, let him finish.

Participants- interrupting

Excuse me, may I interrupt?
Can I come in here?
Could I just comment on that?

Participants – stopping an interruption

If I could just finish.
May I just finish?
No, just one minute…
I haven’t finished what I was saying.


Why did you interrupt?
I’d like to point out …
I’d like to add something to…
I think we are forgetting an important point: namely…
I’d like to develop one point that was mentioned by…

Referring to other Opinions

Peter, you said that…
Somebody mentioned…
What you said about…
As Peter suggested,…

Changing the focus of the discussion

We need to go into this in more depth/detail.
Perhaps… is worth considering.

Commenting on an interruption
That’s a good point.
I see what you mean.
You’re right.

Chair –exploiting an interruption

OK. Perhaps we should talk more about …
So, is it perhaps more important to..?
Let’s think about this new point.

Fill in the blanks.

Add                at once                superficially                in more depth

Mark:        If I could just interrupt for a moment…

Bob:        I think Linda has made a good point. Did you want to ____________
                something, Mark?

Mark:       Yes. I’d like to add namely that different clients have different needs. A
                few of the suggestion we’ve heard______ ___acknowledge these 
                differences. But I think if we explore these techniques ________ we’ll find that they really make all the same assumptions about the needs of our clients.

Karen:        May I just point out…

Linda:        Just a minute, Mark…

Bob:        One at a time, please. We can’t all speak ___________. Yes, Linda?...

Find a word in the vocabulary list with a similar meaning .

1.        at the same time______________
2.        break in_____________________
3.        deeper_____________________
4.        important___________________
5.        use wisely___________________

Match the questions or statements with similar meanings.

1. Did I make my point clear?                A. Could I come in and say something?
2. I just want to mention one thing.      B. Do you think everyone understood?
3. If I could just finish.                        C. I was not done speaking.
4. May I interrupt?                              D. Please let me make just one point
5. Not everyone can speak at once.      E. We can’t all comment at the same
                                                                   time.