Level: B1 to B2
Practising speaking up in an English work meeting
“By the time I have worked out how to say it, the meeting has moved on.”
Meetings are the place where good written English stops helping. The vocabulary is usually not the problem. Timing is. There is a window of about two seconds where it is your turn, and if you spend that window assembling a grammatically perfect sentence, the window closes and someone else is talking.
This is why people who read and write English comfortably can still sit silent through an hour of meetings, and then feel invisible at work. It is not a competence problem and it is rarely noticed as a language problem by anyone else. It just looks like having nothing to say.
The way through it is to have a way in, one short phrase that claims the floor and gives you a few seconds of protected time to finish the thought. Native speakers use maybe five of these and reuse them constantly. Practise them out loud until they come out without preparation, because that is the only version that will be available to you at speed.
10 prompts for this topic
Work through these out loud. Reading them silently does almost nothing, which is the whole difficulty.
- 01Interrupt politely to add something to what the last person said.
- 02Disagree with a decision without saying the word no.
- 03Ask someone to repeat something you missed, without sounding lost.
- 04Give a one minute update on what you did last week.
- 05Say that you do not have enough information to answer yet.
- 06Push back on a deadline you think is unrealistic.
- 07Support a colleague's idea and add one thing to it.
- 08Say that you did not understand the question.
- 09Volunteer for something.
- 10End your point clearly instead of letting it trail off.
Reading these is the easy half.
The prompts are free and they are all here. What they cannot do is answer back. Ten minutes, voice only, with someone who is practising too.
What it sounds like
One way this can go. Not a script to memorise, just proof that it is shorter and more ordinary than it feels beforehand.
Partner
So we are agreed, we ship it Friday.
You
Can I add one thing before we lock that in?
Partner
Go ahead.
You
I think Friday is possible, but only if the testing starts Wednesday. If it starts Thursday we are shipping something nobody has looked at.
Partner
Thursday was the plan, honestly.
You
Then I would rather move the ship date than move the testing. What would we lose by going to Monday?
Partner
A week of user feedback, mostly.
You
That is fair. Let me look at whether we can start testing Wednesday and come back to you this afternoon.
Phrases worth having ready
Say each one out loud a few times. The goal is that they arrive without being summoned, because under pressure nothing else will.
- “Can I add one thing?”
- The cleanest way into a conversation already in progress.
- “Sorry, can I jump in here?”
- Slightly more assertive. Use when the window is closing.
- “Building on what ... said,”
- Gets you the floor by crediting someone else first.
- “I see it slightly differently.”
- Disagreement with no confrontation in it.
- “I am not sure I agree, and here is why.”
- Stronger, still safe. The and-here-is-why is what keeps it collaborative.
- “What would we lose by ...?”
- Challenges a decision by asking rather than opposing.
- “Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing,”
- Catches a misunderstanding without accusing anyone of causing it.
- “I missed the last part, could you go back a step?”
- Asks for a repeat while sounding engaged.
- “I do not have enough to answer that yet.”
- Better than guessing, and taken seriously if you say when you will.
- “Let me come back to you on that this afternoon.”
- Ends your turn cleanly with a commitment attached.
- “That is fair.”
- Concedes a point quickly so the meeting keeps moving.
- “So the decision is ..., is that right?”
- Closes a loop. People remember whoever does this.
Three things to stop doing
Waiting for a natural gap.
Can I add one thing?
In a meeting with more than four people there is no natural gap. Waiting for one is how an hour passes in silence.
No, that is wrong.
I see it slightly differently.
The second one gets the same objection heard, without anyone needing to defend themselves.
Letting a point trail off quietly.
So the decision is X, is that right?
An unfinished point is usually treated as no point at all. Finishing it is often more important than making it well.
The first one is the hardest. It is also free.
Ten minutes, voice only, no camera. Your partner is practising too, which is the part that makes it bearable.