Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 612, Introducing a Speaker.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 612.
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This episode is called Introducing a Speaker.
It is going to use vocabulary.
You would hear when someone was going to introduce a presenter, for example, at a conference or at a presentation, usually a formal presentation.
Let's get started.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?
It is my great honor to introduce our guest speaker today.
Our speaker is actually a person who needs no introduction, since she is well known in our field as one of its great innovators.
Edwina Lytton has been called a revolutionary thinker by those in our field.
That's because she has strived to bring attention to those issues that we believe are so important.
Dr. Litton holds four advanced degrees and has an honorary doctorate from Harvard University.
In her much-anticipated speech today, she will address what she sees as the future of our field.
Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Dr. Edwina Lytton.
I begin introducing the speaker by saying ladies and gentlemen.
This is a very formal expression we use for formal events.
If you are trying to get people's attention, if you are trying to get people to stop talking and listen to you.
In a formal situation, say a business meeting usually a large meeting where there are many people you would say may I have your attention please?
Your attention is what you are focusing on.
You want them to focus on you.
I continue by saying once again using some formal phrases.
It is my great honor to introduce our guest speaker today.
An honor H-O-N-O-R, is something that makes you feel proud, makes you feel respected.
It's a good thing, a pleasurable thing, even.
The word honor has a couple of meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
So I say it is my great honor, a very high honor, if you will, to introduce our guest speaker.
To introduce someone in this case means to tell someone or to tell a group of people about another person whom they are probably meeting for the first time.
So you bring a friend of yours to a party and you meet someone that you know but that your friend does not.
You would introduce your friend to the other person there at the party.
In this case, I'm introducing the speaker.
I am saying, this person, who you may not know, is, and then I give a description.
The guest speaker is a person who is invited specifically to talk at an event, a meeting, a conference, perhaps.
I say our speaker is actually a person who needs no introduction.
This expression, to need no introduction, means that he or she is very well known by other people.
That everyone in the audience listening would already know this person.
It's sort of a way of saying to the person, you are very famous.
It's kind of a compliment to that person.
So I say our speaker is actually a person who needs no introduction, since she is well known in our field as one of its great innovators.
Our field here means whatever area we are working in or studying in.
My field when I was a professor was applied linguistics.
That was the area that I studied and did research in.
The presenter here, the guest speaker, is well known in the field of the people at this meeting.
As one of the great innovators, an innovator, I-N-N-O-V-A-T-O-R, is someone who is very creative, someone who will take risks, someone who invents something new An innovator is often the first person to find new ways of doing things or to do things for the first time.
Edwina Lytton that's the name of the guest speaker has been called a revolutionary thinker by those in our field.
A revolutionary thinker means in this case someone who has many new ideas.
These ideas may be surprising when you first hear them.
They have new ideas about the way things should be done in the world, in particular, in whatever field we're talking about here.
So a revolutionary thinker is someone who has very bold ideas, perhaps controversial new ideas about something.
I say that Edwina is a revolutionary thinker.
That's because she has strived to bring attention to those issues that we believe are so important.
To strive S-T-R-I-V-E means to try to do something that is very difficult, to do something that is not easy.
I'm going to strive to help all of the people in the world learn English, who want to learn English.
It's not easy.
I'm going to strive to do it.
I'm going to put a lot of effort into it.
I'm going to work very hard in order to accomplish this thing.
So Edwina has strived to bring attention to certain issues.
To bring attention to something means to make many people think about something that perhaps they didn't know before or that they would normally not think about, they would normally ignore.
This can be used in many different ways.
You could say to your boss I'd like to bring to your attention, or bring your attention to something that was in the newspaper this morning.
You are telling him about something that he or she probably doesn't know, because they're working instead of reading their newspaper at their desk.
So maybe you should be working too.
But the idea is that you are telling someone something they didn't know before.
Well, Edwina has strived to bring attention to certain issues, certain topics that this group believes are important.
I should point out, it's also possible to say striven here.
She has striven here.
Instead of strived, E-D.
They both are acceptable in American English.
Dr. Litton, I say, holds four advanced degrees.
An advanced degree would be something like a master's degree or a doctoral level degree, a doctorate.
Any academic degree, any academic level of achievement is So.
You go to college, you study for years, you get an undergraduate degree, your bachelor's of arts or bachelor's of science.
After that, if you get an additional degree, that would be an advanced degree, one that is higher than the undergraduate degree.
A Master's of Science, a Master's of Art, a Master's of Fine Arts, a Master's of Business Administration, a Doctor of Philosophy, a Medical Doctor, a doctor of law, a jurist doctor.
All of these are advanced degrees.
Well, Dr Litton has four, and one of them obviously is either a PhD, an MD or some other doctorate.
She also has an honorary doctorate from Harvard University.
Harvard University is kind of like Harvard University.
The biggest difference is the W in the middle of the word.
Honorary is when you go to a university, typically at the end of the year ceremony, called the commencement ceremony, when everyone who is graduating from the university will receive their degree, their piece of paper that says that they have graduated, they have completed their work.
When you go to these commencement exercises, as they're called these commencement ceremonies they often have someone who is famous or who has done something great, and they want to honor that person.
They want that person to receive some recognition.
And so they give them an honorary doctorate.
Universities do this.
So that person technically is now a doctor, although that's not really true.
But it is a way of honoring that person.
In her much anticipated speech today I continue she will address what she sees as the future of our field, something that is much anticipated, much hyphen.
Anticipated in this case is something that people have been waiting for and looking forward to a long time.
In this speech, this time where she is going to stand up and tell you what she thinks...
She will address what she sees as the future of our field.
To address here means to speak about a particular topic, to discuss a particular issue.
There are other meanings of this word.
You can find those in our learning guide.
Finally, I say, without further ado.
Without further or additional ado.
This is a formal phrase meaning that you are going to do something right away.
You're not going to continue, in this case, your introduction.
You are ending your introduction.
Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Dr. Edwina Litton.
To join someone in welcoming someone else means that typically you begin to clap your hands so the person feels welcomed.
As the person comes up from their chair to talk to you, join me in welcoming our guest today.
And everyone will clap and the person will feel welcome.
They will feel like people want him or her to be there.
That's the idea.
And so without further ado, let's listen to the dialogue at a normal rate of speech.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?
It is my great honor to introduce our guest speaker today.
Our speaker is actually a person who needs no introduction, since she is well known in our field as one of its great innovators.
Edwina Litton has been called a revolutionary thinker by those in our field.
That's because she has strived to bring attention to those issues that we believe are so important.
Dr. Litton holds four advanced degrees and has an honorary doctorate from Harvard University.
In her much-anticipated speech today, she will address what she sees as the future of our field.
Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Dr. Edwina Litton.
Our script was written by someone who needs no introduction, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
I definitely need an introduction.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
