language learning center · C1 · Lesson 7
Structuring extended explanations
Guide a listener through a layered explanation with clear hierarchy, transitions, and a purposeful conclusion.
Understand and learn
Work from a natural example to useful language, one small pattern, a spoken attempt, and a response that is relevant to your life.
Hana
At first glance, the decline appears to be a pricing issue. That is only part of the picture, however.
Hana introduces the obvious explanation and immediately limits it.
Isaac
What else should we take into account?
Isaac invites the next layer of the explanation.
Hana
More fundamentally, expectations have changed. People now judge the service against alternatives that did not exist two years ago.
Hana marks the deeper cause as more important.
Isaac
So the practical implication is that lowering the price alone would address the symptom, not the underlying problem.
Isaac connects the hierarchy of causes to a practical conclusion.
Notice, try, and speak
Understand a natural example and learn a small set of useful words, phrases, and patterns.
Useful words and phrases
These items were selected by the lesson curriculum for practical use—not extracted as an every-word list.
At first glance,…
Introduce an initial interpretation.
At first glance, the decline appears to be a pricing issue. That is only part of the picture, however.
That is only part of the picture.
Signal that another layer is needed.
At first glance, the decline appears to be a pricing issue. That is only part of the picture, however.
More fundamentally,…
Move to a deeper or more important cause.
More fundamentally, expectations have changed. People now judge the service against alternatives that did not exist two years ago.
This matters for two reasons.
Preview a controlled sequence of points.
This matters for two reasons.
The practical implication is that…
Connect the explanation to action or consequence.
So the practical implication is that lowering the price alone would address the symptom, not the underlying problem.
Notice, try, and speak
Which transition introduces a deeper cause rather than simply another example?
Make it yours
Give a two-minute explanation in English that moves from an initial appearance to a deeper cause and then to a practical implication.
Explain a familiar problem whose obvious cause is only part of the picture.
Use it with someone
Build an extended explanation in English
- 1. At first glance,…
- 2. That is only part of the picture.
- 3. More fundamentally,…
- 4. This matters for two reasons.
- 5. The practical implication is that…