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Teaching oral interaction discussion

Hi，My Colleagues

Informal chat
As the screencast played, this is “rule-light” and spontaneous activity. It looks like the foundation of the speaking as people normally talk to each other in simple language. And it usually happened outside the classroom. But it’s good to develop higher language level. It is a basis. So we could not take the activity as an assessment.

Discussion, group formats
I think this is “rule-heavy” and prepared activity. Sometimes, the students are expected to discuss a certain topic when they have already done the preparation. Thus, the students could have more speaking opportunities. However, it could be also spontaneous activity. Because it usually happened to the new chapters without advanced preparation. The aim of the activity is to get to know or clarify certain knowledge.

Discussion, systems
In my opinion, this is “rule-heavy” and prepared activity. The students are required to go further deeper language through advanced preparation such as investigation, search, inquiring etc. Finally, it could develop the complicated, deeper language so as to improve the spoken language.

Formal debate
As the screencast played, this is “rule-heavy” and prepared activity. The students need much more time to do preparation, and then according to the criteria decide the winner. It could develop higher level language.

Stimulus-to-interaction
I think this is “rule-heavy” and spontaneous activity. The students could start a discussion while looking at the matters of the front. It is easy to develop the discussion by stimulus. There is no preparation before the discussion.

Role-played interactions
As the screencast played, this is “rule-heavy” and prepared activity. It is easy to assess while they were in certain situation. And the students follow the rules to practice the conversation.

Role-play situations
As the screencast played, this is “rule-light” and spontaneous activity. The students just act as a party and then conduct to have conversation. They are easy to have imagination to complete the initial conversation.

Prepared interactions
This is “rule-heavy” and prepared activity. First, the students have to do preparation. Second, they follow the rules to implement and reach the target.

Panel discussion
It could “rule-heavy” and prepared activity. The students share their ideas, viewpoints after they prepare the topic. It’s very good to share to everyone. So as to develop the skill of panel discussion.

Xin Bo Chen

Great activities! Loreto

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Hello everyone,

It seems to me that using role play activities is a very effective technique to strengthen oral interaction. I am thinking of an activity where the students will be interviewed in a radio program. You can use a podcast page to record the interview. Students must have investigated and commented in class about a particular topic. One of the students must be the presenter of the program, and will be preparing questions related to the topic (these should be elaborated with time in the classroom). In the classroom, students will have time to practice their answers for 'the radio program'. After the session has been recorded in the podcast, in class, students comment on the ideas learned by their classmates.

I comment on this idea because I used it a few days ago to work on the topic Global issues: Drugs. We spent 4 sessions talking about how this issue affects the countries of Latin America. Then for the role-play, one of the students was in charge of being the presenter, the rest of the students represented the ambassadors from different Latin American countries to comment on how they were trying to solve this situation in their countries. At the end of the interview, each student take note of the aspects of other countries, and discussed about it. I have to say they really enjoyed this activity.

Emili

Thank you for sharing!
Great activity. Loreto

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Speaking is probably the most challenging task when learning a new language. The students have a lot of good thoughts, but have difficulties at times to find the right words.Many times the students benefit from ingormal, small group interactions with little pressure from teachers or marking. From the first part of the module I came up with two classifications:
1. Formal speaking vs Informal speaking. Informal speaking includes informal chat, work with a partner, small group and whole class group, whereas socratic seminar, interview, formal debate and stimulus to interaction show what the student learned for a unit of teaching, formal speaking.
2. Prepared vs Spontaneous. This category might overlap with the first one that I mentioned. Students struggle with spontaneous interaction, so I think it is important to teach the students the skills to use language in a variety of situations. Prepared interaction is easier because the students have a chance to gather their ideas about a certain topic and demonstrate some language skills.
Informal chat, pair , small group and whole class should be evident in almost every day lesson to help the students produce as much language as possible. Formal debates should come in at the end of the unit of study where student can interact with language in a variety of situations.
In my classes I use "fold the line". The students get into a straight line in the back of the classroom. I give them directions to fold the line( have half the line walk and face the other half, each student having a partner. One line is asking a question and the other line responds. After, one student from a line moves one step to the right, so everyone has a different partner. It kind of forces everyone to participate and to work with different partners.

Thank you
Florentina

Florentina, I agree with you that for a lot of students speaking is a big challenge. I think one key point is that they feel comfortable and safe to contribute, this is not always easy to achieve and also depends on personality.
Loreto

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Hello all
1. Oral activity depends on the student's ability to:
- Audacity and enthusiasm
- Open to the culture of the other
- Understanding of global issues
- has a social culture -
- Ability to accept the opinions of others
2. Characteristics of questions
- The questions are specific, clear, do not accept the answer yes or no, but  need convincing answers and clear evidence .
3 - The text from which the discussion starts differs from: article, picture, video, opinion or problem
The oral activity should be about an issue that concerns everyone and is not personal
4-The discussion  on an issue must be close to the minds of the students and close to their environment for to be enthusiastic and encourages student to think and innovation and communication (can not talk in the Arab community, for example on issues related to sex or similar).
Regards
Mahmoud

Mahmoud, I agree with you that we should not just accept a yes or no question. Students should get used to expand their opinion without us having to promp them all the time. Great activities!
Loreto

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Hello dear all!

I have made an attempt at classifying some of the activities:

Group discussions:
I think this is mainly a "rule-light" activity, however it can be both "prepared" and "spontaneous", depending on how much time we give students to come up with ideas for their contributions.
I think discussions can be a good activity at the start of a lesson, perhaps giving students a theme that is related to the topic/book we will study later, and we can see at the end of the unit whether their opinions have changed when compared to the initial discussion.

Discussion systems:
This is related to group discussions, therefore it is a "rule light" activity. However, it must be both prepared since students must have made their own attempts at analysing and thinking of things to talk about and back up their claims, however they can also discover new insights during the discussion and react to their peers' contributions in a spontaneous manner. I liked the activities (such as Spiderwebs) proposed for this, it feels like a more "grown-up" discussion, perhaps more similar to what they would do at university.

Formal debate:
Prepared and rule-heavy, as the screencast suggests.

Student presentation + questions + discussion:
A mixture of rule-heavy and prepared (on behalf of the student presenting the topic, they must be able to structure and organise their ideas) but rule-light and spontaneous for the second part when students must react and create questions about the presentation. Even though students may be expected to ask their questions in an orderly manner, they should be "free" to disagree with what was said or present their own viewpoints.

I think a good exercise which would tie all these activities together would be to give students a certain topic (perhaps a controversial one) and tell them they must inform a specific audience about it. As a classroom, they must decide on which would be the best way to communicate the message to this specific audience (for example: you are going to talk about teenage pregnancy to a group of teenagers/you must explain the topic of unrequited in Romeo and Juliet love to a group of 10-year-olds/you must discuss the importance of technology with people in an elderly home, etc.) Should they use a presentation with their audience? a discussion? a debate?

Greta idea to classify the activities! Loreto