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Group
discussion skills
Group discussions occur in
many different formats – from very informal ones between friends to highly
structured and challenging discussions included as part of a selection process.
In both cases, there are a number of specific skills that we can help our
students develop to become better able to contribute effectively to group
discussions.
Developing group discussion
skills is useful for everyday life as we regularly find ourselves having
discussions amongst friends, family and colleagues.
There are a variety of
different types of discussions that occur naturally and which we can recreate
in the classroom. These include discussions where the participants have to:
There are a number of
different sub-skills which students will need to be able to successfully and
effectively participate in a group discussion. Students need to develop the
ability to:
Analyse
This skill can be developed by giving students the topic individually and
asking them to brainstorm or mind-map all of the possible sub-topics they could
speak about. The students can then swap their notes and assess or analyse the
relevance of each of the sub-topics their partner has included. Together, the
students then draw up a fresh list or mind-map and discuss how the sub-topics
might be linked together, along with examples or reasons for any arguments they
might have.
Persuade
This skill comes in useful when students need to make decisions on how to do
something (e.g. which candidate should get a job). A fun activity to develop
this skill is to give groups of students this topic and ask them to decide on
the profile of the perfect candidate, creating a list of 7 adjectives. The
students are then re-grouped and asked to persuade the other members of the
group that their selection is the best while compiling a second, negotiated
list. The group members who retain the most from their original lists are the
winners. Note down useful phrases that you hear the students using while doing
this task and discuss these at the end for future reference.
Control emotions
This can be practised by giving
the students a fairly controversial topic, such as ‘Friends are more important
than family’ and asking the students to decide whether they agree, disagree or
have no opinion, making notes on their main arguments to support their
viewpoint. Divide the students into groups ensuring that there is a mix of
views within each group. Explain that for this discussion, the aim is to keep
their voices low and try to control their emotions as far as possible. Monitor
and give feedback on these areas.
Support
One of the most important things
for this skill is for students to learn when it is and isn’t appropriate to
interrupt and how to do it. Very often students will talk over each other in an
effort to get their point across and forget to listen.
To practise this, you can get your
students to make a list in small groups of when it is and isn’t appropriate to
interrupt other speakers. They should include things like ‘not appropriate
during the middle of a point, if the speaker has not said very much previously,
or when you are feeling angry and liable to say something you’ll regret’. It is
appropriate when the speaker has been dominating the discussion for too long,
what the speaker is saying is completely irrelevant to the topic, or you don’t
understand the point he / she has made’.
You can then give them or elicit a list of phrases which they might use to
interrupt politely (e.g. ‘Can i just add something here?’, ‘Sorry I’d just like
to clarify something,’ etc.) The students then write five of these on slips of
paper (one per slip) and have a group discussion on a given topic. The aim is
to use all of the language on their slips. When they have used a phrase, they
put the slip in the middle of the table. The other students in the group judge
whether the interruption was appropriate / polite. If not, they take the slip
back and try again.
Use functional language
Depending on the types of group discussions that you plan to do with your
class, it is useful to draw up a list of useful functional language for the
students to refer to. This could include phrases for functions such as ‘Giving
reasons’, ‘Giving your opinion’, ‘Agreeing and disagreeing’, etc. You can
either make up the list yourself and distribute it or get the students to do this.
For each group discussion, you can then refer them to the appropriate section
of the list and give them a few moments to consider the language before
beginning the discussion.
Setting up group discussions
There are several key things to consider when setting up group discussions in
the classroom to ensure that they run successfully.