Difficulty getting classroom discussion going
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Difficulty getting classroom discussion going
I teach intermediate level speakers aged 19-21 in a Chinese university. Any attempt to get discussion going is a dismal failure. Can anyone help me figure out why? I have success with role plays , story telling and response to individual questions so I know the capabilities of the students. I'm in my 50's and have worked in schools before but this is my 1st experience as a teacher so I am still developing my classroom management skills. I have a variety of age appropriate, culturally sensitive topics that should work. I just can't seem to get the knack of getting a discussion off the ground and keeping it afloat. I'd welcome some feedback.
When you say you have trouble getting a discussion going, do you mean a discussion by the whole class together or a discussion by small groups? I teach adults (granted, they are not from one language background) and I have them discuss a topic every week. I start by writing a lot of questions on the topic, and I go over the questions first to make sure they understand the vocabulary. Then I have them talk together in groups of three, while I circulate to answer questions, provide vocabulary, and make comments. I also allow them to follow tangents, the most important part of the lesson being speaking in English, not following the questions to the letter. In my case, I have them write a paragraph on the topic the next day and then I put it on the Internet, but I think you could do a lot of different things depending on your subject.
When do we discuss in groups?
Good morning abcdef, and Lorikeet.
Abcdef, the same situation as you describe has always been true in my classes. Role-plays, games, even drill work are always animated and have a high rate of acceptance and even success in class, whereas group discussions are a dismal failure. Why, just the other day, in a very motivated group of adults who spend most of the class moving their lips in English, I suddenly found myself facing a lot of dumb faces when I tried to lead a group discussion that wasn't more complicated that answering leading questions on a video that we are studying with the objective of using video at home as a study tool. Though I haven't used group discussion for years, I thought I'd give it a try with this group and the experience leads me to avoid it again in the future.
When do we actually discuss things in a group? I am American, and so learned Robert's Rules of Order as the basis for group discussion. I think such rules are useful when a group meets with certain frequency and needs to make decisions based on their discussion, but have found that such rules have little place in the ESL class. When the group gets beyond three or four people either one or two who aren't afraid to speak up dominate the discussion or no one opens their mouths, or there is literal chaos as little groups form of two or three people. Sooooo,
Take lorikeet's advice, don't ask the entire group to discuss the topic all together but rather have them discuss in smaller groups, have the more articulate members of each group report on the results to the general public, ask and answer questions, follow it all up with written summaries. Stick to the role-play format that you have had luck with. In the end, it's how things tend to happen in the real world, how many parties have you been to where everyone sits around disucssing the same topic, listening to one person and then offering their own idea while everyone else shuts up and listens? I personally think the group discussion is an artificial construct that doesn't offer an economic use of class time.
peace,
revel.
Abcdef, the same situation as you describe has always been true in my classes. Role-plays, games, even drill work are always animated and have a high rate of acceptance and even success in class, whereas group discussions are a dismal failure. Why, just the other day, in a very motivated group of adults who spend most of the class moving their lips in English, I suddenly found myself facing a lot of dumb faces when I tried to lead a group discussion that wasn't more complicated that answering leading questions on a video that we are studying with the objective of using video at home as a study tool. Though I haven't used group discussion for years, I thought I'd give it a try with this group and the experience leads me to avoid it again in the future.
When do we actually discuss things in a group? I am American, and so learned Robert's Rules of Order as the basis for group discussion. I think such rules are useful when a group meets with certain frequency and needs to make decisions based on their discussion, but have found that such rules have little place in the ESL class. When the group gets beyond three or four people either one or two who aren't afraid to speak up dominate the discussion or no one opens their mouths, or there is literal chaos as little groups form of two or three people. Sooooo,
Take lorikeet's advice, don't ask the entire group to discuss the topic all together but rather have them discuss in smaller groups, have the more articulate members of each group report on the results to the general public, ask and answer questions, follow it all up with written summaries. Stick to the role-play format that you have had luck with. In the end, it's how things tend to happen in the real world, how many parties have you been to where everyone sits around disucssing the same topic, listening to one person and then offering their own idea while everyone else shuts up and listens? I personally think the group discussion is an artificial construct that doesn't offer an economic use of class time.
peace,
revel.
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JeanRezende
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- Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:39 pm
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