English for Academic Purposes
Prof. Bauer-Ramazani

Academic Skills
Discourse Cues in Listening

Lecturers use discourse cues (signal words) to indicate relationships among ideas.

MAIN/LECTURE TOPIC: Today we are going to discuss/talk about ...; Today's lecture is about ...

PREVIEW/ORGANIZATION: First, we will discuss...; then we will examine ..., and we will conclude with ...

DEFINITION : Let's define ...; can be defined as

SERIES/PROGRESSION OF POINTS: first, ...; the first ...is ...; first of all, ...; second, ...; secondly, ...; lastly, ...; the last ... is ..

ADDITIONAL POINT: another; the next ...; furthermore; moreover; beside ...

CAUSE-EFFECT: lead to; result in; become; produce; create; generate; as a result; consequently; therefore; thus

CONTRAST: however; in contrast to ...; unlike; different from

SIMILARITY: like; similar to; likewise; similarly

REASON/PURPOSE: for this reason; because of...; in order to; because

VOCABULARY/SYNONYM: means/meant; is called; is known as;

EXAMPLE: can be illustrated by; let's look at an example; for instance; for example; is best shown by giving an example

CLASSIFICATION: can be divided into several groups; can be grouped according to ...; can be classified according to ...

EMPHASIS: in fact; indeed; actually; on the contrary

DIGRESSION: Let me tell you a story about a friend who ...; by the way

CONCLUSION: to summarize; as we have seen; to conclude my remarks

RESTATEMENT: in other words (i.e.); this/that means that . . .; that is to say …