Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 February 26

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February 26

Have you ever had a really good discussion in a foreign language class?

Hi, I teach ESL in China, and I'm looking to create some good discussion lessons in class, so it isn't just plain, boring topics, small talk, and relatively basic games. But if I give a topic that is too deep (for their English level, or their 18 years of life experience), it just bombs. Have any of you ever had a language class (as a teacher, or especially, as a student) where you really got a discussion going? What was the topic, and how did the lesson go? IBE (talk) 03:50, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

When I used to tutor ESL one-on-one, I would just ask the student about himself—where is he from, what are his interests, what are his plans for the future, etc. Loraof (talk) 04:47, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

I can offer two possibilities. First, you can give them options to choose from. My current favourite procedure (stolen from Alex McNish) is to give them a long list of questions, on a spectrum from dullish to weird and wonderful, and let them choose which ones to discuss; I've uploaded an example at www.chinese-poems.com/dp6/scienceandtechnologyquestions.rtf. Second, I have a list of quotations which are sufficiently general that anyone can apply them to their lives, but sufficiently controversial that they can argue (e.g. "People, they ain't no good"; "Those who know do not speak, those who speak do not know"). To get them going with quotations, you can ask what it means, why they think the person said it, why someone might agree, and why someone might disagree.

I don't know how you're trying to run your discussions, but i would divide a Chinese class of 40 into e.g. eight groups of five, and move between them as ringmaster, rather than attempting a whole class discussion (that can come as a feedback activity at the end). Henry^Flower 08:29, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Hey, thankyou - I never do whole class discussions - waste of time because only one person can speak at a time. I let them get into groups as they please. But yes, I've been thinking of doing something like this - mass list of topics. The quotes one is a good idea to try. IBE (talk) 09:05, 26 February 2019 (UTC)