5. Conference Active Vocabulary

a meeting/ a session

a plenary meeting/ the opening ceremony

a chairman/ a chairwoman/ a chairperson

to call upon someone/ to give the floor to someone

to set up/ to fix the time limit

to break the time limit

to call attention to the time limit

to stimulate discussion

to ask smb a question

to call for questions

a speaker

to submit abstracts/ to present papers/ to present poster reports

to take part in/ to participate in/ to attend a conference

to take the floor

to stick/ to keep to the point

to digress from the subject

to have a good/ poor knowledge of English

to find the knowledge of English adequate/ inadequate

to find English hard to follow

to fail to understand reports/ questions in English

Tasks

A. Answer the questions:

1. Have you ever participated in international conferences/ symposia/ congresses?

2. When did you last take part in a conference?

3. Where was the conference held?

4. What problems were considered and discussed?

5. How many participants attended the conference/ session/ workshop?

6. Which reports attracted general attention?

7. Whose report was of particular interest?

8. What problem did it deal with?

9. Did you present a paper at the conference?

10. Were you given the floor?

11. Was the time limit fixed?

12. Did you find your English sufficient/ adequate to participate in the international conference?

13. Do you think you have a good/ poor knowledge of English?

14. Did you find the speakers’ English hard to follow?

15. Why is it necessary/ important for a scientist to know foreign languages?

B. Complete the sentences with the words from the Active Vocabulary.

1. Every year conferences … in our university.

2. This year I … in the conference which was held …

3. I had to … the abstracts covering the problem of …

4. The time limit was … and I had ten minutes to …

5. My report … the problem which … much attention.

6. Of … interest were reports presented by X and Y.

7. I … in understanding English, because I find my English …

C. Act out the situation. Your fellow-student has never participated in a conference. He is eager to know about your experience. Tell him what the most difficult thing for you was and what you enjoyed the most.

6. Presenting a Paper

Active Vocabulary

to present a paper

to do research

to discuss in detail

to note the difference

to remind of

to begin/ to finish with

to emphasize

to point out

to give an explanation of

to draw a conclusion

in contrast with

Speech Patterns

Introductory Paper Speech Patterns

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I am greatly honoured to be invited to this conference.

In this paper I would like to talk about the concept of …

The object of this paper is to show …

To begin with, let us imagine that …

As many of you know …

First of all I would like to …

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that …

I am very pleased to have this opportunity to …

In my paper I want to highlight ….

In the introduction of my paper I would like to …

I tell this story because …

Let me begin with …

The first thing I want to talk about is …

The subject that I will discuss is …