Useful English Phrases: Asking for Attention - British English Podcast

Hello, welcome to the English Like a Native Podcast.

The podcast that aims to improve your listening, expand your vocabulary,

and hopefully in some ways entertain and keep you company during

whatever task it is you are doing.

My name is Anna and today you are listening to an off-the-cuff episode.

An off-the-cuff episode is an episode that is not scripted.

It's not entirely planned.

If something is off-the-cuff, then you haven't really planned it.

You might make an off-the-cuff comment, which would be a comment that just

pops into your head and you haven't really thought about it very much.

You just say it.

Sometimes we all do that, don't we?

And get ourselves into lots of trouble.

Anyway, today's topic for our off-the-cuff episode is asking for attention.

Now this is particularly with teachers, presenters, and anyone

who has to run meetings or deliver information to groups of people...

this is for you, and this topic came to mind because recently I

went to sit in on my son's class.

Now, my son is in the first year of primary school or infant school.

He's in reception and it's the first time he's had to deal with structured learning

as opposed to when he was at nursery.

It was just kind of free play most of the day.

And so now he has structured learning and we were invited as parents to

attend one of the phonics sessions.

So we can see how the teachers are teaching phonics to our children.

So that we can, in turn, do the same at home and support the

work of the teachers at home.

And in most schools in the UK, the class number tends to be

around 30 children to a class.

So, It's never usually more than that in more rural areas, then there may be a

smaller class, perhaps 20, 25 students, but in most busy, built-up areas, a class,

in a school would have around 30 students.

Now imagine having to control, or get the attention of thirty five-year-olds.

That's quite an ask.

In fact, many of the students in this class are not even

five, many of them are four.

So trying to get their attention is quite difficult but my son's teacher has quite

a good method and it's the clap method.

So they have a very structured morning.

The children now know what to expect.

Each little section of the session is kept short.

So things change quite rapidly and it starts off with free play.

So when the children come in, they have free play with certain

activities already set up in the room.

And then once the teacher wants to get their attention, so she can bring

them together on the carpet, because most children at a young age sit on

the carpet with their legs crossed.

When I was younger, it was on the carpet, legs crossed, arms folded,

but then also one finger on your lips.

So you had your finger over your lips to keep you quiet and to show that

you were quiet and you were attentive.

So to get the attention of everyone when they were doing their free

play, the teacher would clap.

So she'd do and then all the other children would respond with...

So you'd have duh-duh-duh-duh-duh - duh-duh!

And I've used this myself when I was teaching children.

Some teachers will have kind of like a shushing method doing the same sort

of rhythm, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

And then the children respond with, shh, shh, or something similar.

It's a way to quickly get attention, to cut through the noise and get

the attention of all the students.

Now, obviously, most of us don't deal with big groups of children, but many

of us will have to try and get the attention of adults, whether that's

running a team meeting or if you're working in PR, you might need to get the

attention of a room full of reporters for a press release, or if you are

presenting to clients, and customers.

You may need to get them into a room and get their attention.

And so often, if you're in an office or a classroom setting, you'd start

by asking everyone to sit down.

And the phrases that we tend to use are, find a seat.

"Alright everyone, find a seat".

And this is if you're in an unfamiliar room or you know it's unfamiliar

to the people you're talking to.

So you say,

"Find a seat, you can sit anywhere you like.

Find a seat".

Or you might tell them to take a seat.

"Please take a seat".

A doctor or a nurse when you enter the room would ask you to just

take a seat in the corner there.

Or just take a seat right here.

So you take a seat.

Which is, it's quite an unusual way to say sit down, isn't it?

To take a seat.

It's almost like they're inviting you to pick the chair up and walk out with it.

Take a seat.

"Hey, no, don't take it away!

Just sit in it.

Sit down."

So, take a seat, or you might say take your seats.

"Right.

Take your seats".

For example, if you are in an auditorium and you can see that

some people are out of their seats, maybe you've taken a break.

People are out of their seats or you're about to start a lecture

in a lecture theatre and everyone is just kind of standing around,

no one's sitting you'd just say,

"Take your seats everyone, take your seats thank you".

And then you might if you have a specific task in mind that involved a book, you

might ask them to take out your books.

"Take out your books, everyone."

"Take out your dictionaries."

"Take out your project files and turn to page 463".

So take out your book, pamphlet, files, folders, and turn to page...

whatever page it is.

If you're working on something specific.

Another way to get people's attention is to simply say,

Okay, good morning everyone.

That's something I used to do when I was teaching drama.

My children would come in, these, I'm talking about teenagers here, they'd come

in very excited because they loved drama.

They loved coming to their drama class and they would all be, you

know, excitedly playing around and chattering away, being very loud.

And I might be having a conversation with a few of them and discussing

things with parents as they were dropping off their children.

And then when I needed to get their attention and say,

"Okay, good afternoon everybody, please take a seat on the floor, let's sit

in a circle and let's get started".

So it could be okay, good morning, okay, good afternoon.

Usually that okay in a nice bright voice is enough to get people's attention.

Okay.

You might also say, if I could have your attention, please.

This would be particularly useful if there's a large crowd.

And maybe they're not expecting you to address them.

They're not expecting anyone to come and talk to them.

Maybe they're waiting for a train or they're in a waiting area in the

hospital and they're not expecting anyone to come and talk to them.

But you need to let them know about something.

Maybe something has happened.

Maybe there's a huge change of plan, like the waiting area suddenly has to

be closed because there is a burst pipe.

And you have to come in and get everyone's attention and ask them

to please move to a different space.

So you'd walk into the room and say,

"If I could have your attention, please.

Hello.

Okay, everybody.

If I could have your attention.

Thank you.

We have a problem.

The pipe has burst.

And so I need everybody to move out of this room and into the adjacent room".

If you are in a planned meeting or class and you're, you're waiting

for people to stop chattering at the beginning, then you might say,

when you're ready, I will begin.

Although this can sometimes come across in a way that's a little abrupt.

It depends on how you deliver it.

"When you're quite ready, I will begin."

"Have you finished?"

"When you're finished, when you're finished talking, then I will begin".

So I'd be careful with that particular phrase.

You could just very gently ask people to be quiet.

So you could say quiet down.

"Okay, everyone, quiet down, shh, shh, shh, quiet down now, please".

Or you might say, settle down, if your group is quite energetic,

bouncing around, having a giggle.

"Okay, settle down now, settle down".

Another phrase that's very similar is pipe down, to pipe

down, P I P E, pipe, pipe down.

"Alright, pipe down now, pipe down".

You could even ask for a bit of hush.

Hush.

A bit of hush.

H U S H.

Hush.

"A bit of hush, please".

If one person in particular is being disruptive, is talking,

even though you've said,

"Okay.

Okay.

Good morning, everyone.

Take your seats.

Take out your books and turn to page five.

Alright.

Quiet down.

Quiet down.

Thank you.

A bit of hush, please".

If there's still one person talking after all that, then you can single them out.

You can call out their name.

You literally say,

"Jacob, thank you".

And just by saying their name, giving them a look, and saying

thank you, then they should get the message that they need to be quiet.

If you are struggling to get people to give you their full attention, even once

they've taken their seats, they've taken out their books, or their pamphlets, or

their files, their papers, and they are sitting down, and they're relatively

quiet, but they're not fully focused, then you might say, eyes to the front.

Or eyes on the board, or eyes on me, please.

You're basically saying look at me, look at the board, or look at the front.

"Eyes to the front, everyone".

I would use these particular phrases only with children, so this

definitely suggests a higher status.

I wouldn't use this with people of a similar status to me, because it

might seem a little patronising.

"Okay, okay, children.

Eyes on me, please.

Look at me.

Thank you".

Now, if you are really struggling and people are being quite rude,

then you could say something like, have you quite finished?

"Jacob, have you quite finished?"

Or you could ask, if someone's continuing to talk at the back of the room,

"Jacob, is there something you'd like to share?

Is there something you'd like to share with the group?"

And often they're talking about something that's, you know,

unrelated to what's being discussed.

Or they are talking about something personal that they don't

want to share with the group.

And therefore being invited to share what they're talking about with everybody

instantly makes them stop because they don't want to repeat it to everybody.

And so that's quite a firm way of getting someone to stop.

Again, I would only use this if you were of higher status,

cause it can be a bit abrupt.

If you're in a meeting, if you're at work and you are slightly higher status and

someone is being rude in your meeting or your presentation, and they are continuing

to talk, then you can invite them,

"Sorry, sorry, Mr.

Smith, do you have something to add to this?

Is there something you'd like to add to this conversation?"

And you invite them to share whatever it is that they're talking about.

You can do it in a relatively nice way, but they'll get the message.

Hopefully it'll make them stop talking.

And then you can ask,

"May I continue?

Is it okay for me to carry on?

Thank you".

But that can be a little sarcastic.

So again, be careful with that one.

Okay, so if you are in a meeting or you're a teacher of some sort and you're

going to ask students or colleagues to give you something, so give you a

piece of work, then one of the common phrasal verbs that we use is hand in.

"I would like your work handed in by...", and then the time.

So for example,

"I'd like your homework handed in by four o'clock today", or "I'd like your homework

handed in by 9am tomorrow morning".

You might ask for submissions.

Submissions.

To submit something, that becomes your submission.

"Submissions are due tomorrow."

Or you could say due in.

"Submissions are due in tomorrow".

You could use the verb submit,

"Please submit your work tomorrow."

Or "please submit your work to me by 9am, tomorrow morning".

Opposite to hand in is to hand out.

This is another phrasal verb that you would definitely use in the classroom

or within a meeting situation or in a presentation when you want

to give or distribute something.

So a pamphlet, a piece of paper with some notes on, a diagram, perhaps, if you're

an examiner, then you might need to distribute and hand out the exam papers.

And you might call someone up to do it.

"Tracy, please hand out today's worksheets.

Thank you".

And she'd come and collect the pile of worksheets and give

one to each person in the room.

"Now Tracy, please collect everyone's worksheets.

Everyone, could you hand in your worksheets to Tracy?"

"Tracy's collecting the worksheets.

Please hand in the worksheets to Tracy."

Or you could tell the class,

"I will be collecting your essays at the end of the class.

So have them ready."

Okay.

Gosh, that reminds me of being a substitute teacher.

So I've been a teacher in many different settings over the years.

I've taught many different subjects as well.

And for a while I was a substitute teacher, which meant I could

end up being in any class of any subject with any age of children,

it depended on where the need was.

And my worst nightmares was being in kind of some of the

schools in, how do I put this?

Some of the schools where it was a little bit harder, where

the children were harder work.

Teenagers usually, 14, 15, 16-year-olds who were getting ready

for their GCSEs but were really not interested in doing their exams.

And I would be in a subject which I wasn't very familiar with myself,

like History or Science, and having to deliver a class based on GCSE Physics

to a group of teenagers who didn't enjoy the class, who didn't care about the

work and who were very excited about having a substitute teacher because

they really, really gave me a hard time.

That was always quite challenging, always quite hard to get their attention.

So I always tried to play the cool teacher in those situations.

Especially when it was a school that was known for violence.

I did have a couple of classes where fights, full fist fights

broke out with these big 16-year-old boys throwing punches at each

other at the back of my class.

Oh my goodness.

And I didn't even know their names.

It was so hard, but you just, you do your best.

You do your best.

And I think what's most important in those situations is not to

ruin your voice, trying to shout.

Often, it's better to go quiet, to be quieter, and to try and enlist

the help of someone else in the room.

You can usually figure out who in the room has got high status, like socially.

So you try to enlist the help of the highest status person in the room and get

them to help you to control the class.

Easier said than done.

I have a lot of respect for teachers who work full-time in face-to-face educational

settings with large groups of people who don't necessarily choose to be there.

So usually in like a secondary school, high school setting, where children

really are starting to get an idea of who they are and what they want to do, but

they're being forced to do some lessons that they're really not interested in.

That's the hardest.

So hats off to you.

I do hope you found today useful.

Next week will be our last week of this podcast in 2023, and we will be back with

many more fantastic episodes in 2024.

So do tune in next week.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.