NEW EXAM TOKEN CARDS 2014:

FUNCTIONAL AREA
Launch the discussion

Do you mind if I start ?

Shall we start by
looking at this one ?

Developing your partners last

comment or idea

Avoiding saying just In my opinion,

I think

Well, the way I see

it is..

Disagreeing politely/constructively

Inviting someone else to give an

opinion

Dealing with a difficult question

Playing for time

(see a case fluency

tips)

The first thing that

strikes me is that

Whats noticeable is
that

First impressions/ ideas

Refocussing after a digression

Agreeing strongly

Clarifying for others

Changing your mind

Postives and Negatives 1)

Postives and Negatives 2)

Checking youve understood your

partner/ paraphrasing your partner

or perhaps I can
put it better like
this..

What I suppose Im
saying is

although having said

that I suppose..

I suppose the main

pitfall might be that..

adding an afterthought

Actually, its just

occurred to me that

Self-repair/ re-starting

Ranking

Summarising agreement so far

Comparing and contrasting

Interrupting politely

Resuming after and interruption

Rounding things off

whereas here..

..unlike in this picture

where

Summarising/concluding

So, all in all

Stating the balance of positives and

negatives

Hedging

PS- going back to a previous train of

thought

which brings me back

to what I was saying
before about

Speculating

Limits of your knowledge

as far as I know

Also, think about raising/ focussing/ emphasising

Concession- putative opponent /objection/ devils advocate
Referring to other peoples views
Introducing an example /illustration (see also DELTA IELTS Adv Sp Amplification / Illustration)
Vague tails ??? (or something like that) (or that kind of thing)
Sequencing .
Introducing particular perspectivesFiller words for rhythm ? Right, well ,actually, so,