Discussion Starters: Speaking Fluency Activities for Advanced ESL/EFL Students
Discussion Starters: Speaking Fluency Activities for Advanced ESL/EFL Students
200 pages | Publisher: University of Michigan Press/ESL | May 15, 1996 | Language: English | ISBN-10: 0472083341 | pdf | 6MB
200 pages | Publisher: University of Michigan Press/ESL | May 15, 1996 | Language: English | ISBN-10: 0472083341 | pdf | 6MB
One of the most common problems facing ESL teachers is the advanced speaking class in which the most confident students dominate the discussion and the weaker students quickly withdraw. Discussion Starters is designed to balance the oral participation of all the students in the class and thus promote an environment in which everyone has not only a chance but a real need to speak out.
Each unit contains a relatively small number of exercises (usually around five) which provide speaking interaction about a central topic or idea. In most of these activities, students must work together in pairs or small groups to reach a conclusion about a topic. Other discussion books on the market today often use imaginary situations for discussion (e.g., "If you had a million dollars, what would you do?"). The activities and tasks in Discussion Starters are real situations from all over the world. When students are asked what they would do in a given situation or how a judge should rule in a case, all the material is real.