​Functional Language for Lecturers

Here is short list of language functions used  lecturers, each with three examples. 
For a list of functions used in seminars, see the seminar page.​
For an AI prompt that will generate more functional phrases, see the prompt page.  

Introduce a topic

• Today we are going to focus on...
• The main issue I want to explore is...
• Let’s begin by looking at...

Define a concept

• By X, we mean...
• The term X refers to...
• For our purposes today, X can be understood as...

Explain a process

• The process begins when...
• The next stage is...
• This leads to...

Describe a diagram

• This diagram shows...
• On the left/right, you can see...
• The arrows indicate...

Summarise a point

• The key point is that...
• So far, we have seen that...
• In short, this means that...

Move to a new section

• Let’s now move on to...
• The next issue we need to consider is...
• This brings us to...

Return to a point

• Let’s return to the point about...
• As I mentioned earlier,...
• Coming back to the question of...​