Devil's Advocate

devils advocate (noun)

In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a
position they do not necessarily agree with (or simply an alternative position from the
accepted norm), for the sake of debate or to explore the thought further.

Often the interviewer will need to play devil's advocate in order to get a discussion going.

Task
Take it in turns to read out the following statements. When the statement is finished, the listener must
continue the discussion by saying Yes, but

Example
A: There is much more equality between men and women these days.
B: Yes, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Women in top management positions stil
earn less than men

Discussion points
1. Technology today makes it easier than ever for people to communicate with each other.
2. Europe is experiencing an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity.
3. The erratic weather patterns seen around the globe are clear testimony to the negative effects
of how the human race has polluted the planet.
4. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a
lifetime.
5. Space exploration is a gross waste of resources and time that should be spent on solving the
problems we already have on planet Earth.
6. Examinations are an essential part of education. Without them, students would have little
motivation to study and no quantifiable measure of their success.
7. Every occupation is an important one. There is no such thing as an important job and an
unimportant one.
8. Learning a foreign language is always a positive experience that enriches our life.
9. Democracy is a good thing. All people should be free to make decisions about the affairs of their
country.
10. In the future, technology will relieve us of the boring, tedious work that we do now and we will
all have more leisure time to spend doing the things we enjoy