Communicating with tutors: agreeing & disagreeing
time to complete: 15-20 minutes
Learning how to agree and disagree with your tutor is an important skill. Whatever it is that you are discussing with your tutor, there will be times you agree with them and times you don’t. So, let’s look at some useful language for agreeing and disagreeing.
Expressing your agreement
Obviously, you might be thinking agreeing is an easy thing to do and that all you need to say is ‘Yes’ or ‘I agree’. Yet, there are many ways of expressing agreement. Here are some:
- Yes / Yeah / Sure / Of course.
- That’s right/true.
- You’re (absolutely) right.
- I know.
- That’s a valid point / good idea.
- I agree.
- Definitely / Exactly / Absolutely.
- I couldn’t agree more. (= I completely agree.)
Expressing your disagreement
You might find yourself in a situation where you want to disagree with your tutor’s opinion or suggestion. Of course, you will provide reasons for your disagreement, but that’s not enough; you need to disagree tactfully. You can ‘soften’ your disagreement by apologising, agreeing partially, or expressing doubt. Here are some examples:
- If I’m honest I don’t see it this way.
- I’m afraid I would have to disagree with…
- I’m sorry, but I think…
- Yes that’s true, but…
- I agree, but…
- That’s a good point, but…
- I see your point, but that’s not always true.
- I suppose/ guess so, but…
- I know that…, but surely…
- I don’t know. What about…?
- I’m not so sure about that. Could it be due to…?
- Hmm, maybe / perhaps. However, what if…?
Task: Drag and drop the words to complete the phrases for disagreeing.
Let’s move on to listening for agreement and disagreement.
Task: First, read the transcript from earlier to remind yourself what the student and tutor were talking about.
Next, listen to the final part of the meeting and answer the questions in your notebook:
- Does the student agree or disagree with the tutor’s suggestion?
- Does the tutor agree or disagree with the student?
- What language do both speakers use to show their agreement/disagreement?
Tutor: Okay, so in this section, where you link flipped learning with andragogy, you conclude by adding the learning cycle. And I am not so sure this is relevant to your argument. You clearly explain how flipped learning can fit under andragogy and pedandragogy, but this section on the learning cycle feels a bit rushed. I would suggest that you either remove it altogether or add a little paragraph, making that connection explicit and clear for your reader.
Student: Hmm, sorry but I am not quite clear on the point you made about explicitly linking the learning cycle with flipped learning and andragogy. Do you mean explaining how it’s related to both?
Tutor: Yes, as it stands it feels like a little bit of an ‘add on’ and it is unclear what is the purpose of the flipped learning, sorry… of the learning cycle, and how it helps further support your point with flipped learning being really, really good for adults and you know grown-up students.
Student: Uh-huh, I think I can see what you mean.
Now, compare your answers to the ones below.
Student: Well, if I am honest, I would say that this section does help support how adults learn this, providing further support to andragogy. This in turn helps support the idea that flipped learning is a suitable method for adult learners.
(= The student disagrees with what the tutor said earlier. It would have been clearer if she had also stressed the word does more.)
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Tutor: Yes, that is true, but the problem here is that you are adding this idea of the learning cycle as part of the concluding section… of the passage, of this part of your work. You are mentioning this idea of the learning cycle at surface level. So, it is unclear for your reader how it relates to andragogy. If you want to keep it, what you need to do is give a more detailed explanation on how it links with your key concepts, which are andragogy and flipped learning. You are welcome to keep it, as I said before, but you can’t expect the reader to infer the link among concepts; it needs to be clearly stated.
(= the tutor disagrees; she acknowledges that the student has a point but moves on to disagree and give reasons)
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Student: Ah, yeah. I see what you mean; the link needs to be there.
(= the student agrees)
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Tutor: Exactly, this is easily missed. As you are very familiar with your argument and how the ideas relate, you may struggle to make this connection clear for your reader; that is why it’s always good to have a second pair of eyes checking your work.