Problems in organizing discussion.

classes
 Imagine you are a student in a foreign language class. A new
teacher comes in and says: today we're going to talk about
oil pollution. What do you think?
 1. how did you feel as a student?
 2. why might you no t h ave Felt like taking part in the
discussion?
 3. w h a t a d v ic e w o u ld y o u g iv e to your t e a c h e r w h e n
planning future lessons of this type?
commentary
 Discussion lessons like this are likely to produce silence or no
more than one or two sentences than a scorching debate.
 You probably had no interest in the subject,
 N o re lev an t k n ow led ge o r ex p er ien ce
 No motivation
 N o d e s i r e o r p e r c e iv e d n e e d t o t a l k a b o u t i t
 A slight panic because you haven't had time to think
therefore you have nothing to say.
Some suggestion for organizing a sparking lesson

Topic and cues

 At it's simplest, you (or learners) would possibly bring to class a
topic (es (bann ing smoking' or (globalization!), as well" as a cue (eg
in the form of a short newspaper article or a provocative question)
that will help spark a conversation.
 Most of the lesson would then be taken up with discussing this,
stating and comparing views.
 There might be little or no explicit `teaching' of grammatical or
vocabulary points.
 In planning the lesson, it would be a good . idea to prepare a number of
further cues (eg follow-on article or questions) to keep
in reserve in order to move the discussion forward if it starts to
drag.
Structuring talk
 Your main role is to structure the talk, making sure that all
learners get a chance to participate, trying to prevent it
getting boring, occasionally adding to the discussion in order
to keep it interesting.
 Try to reduc e your own participation. The more you talk,
the less space there is for (earners to say something.
 Reduce TTT ( Teacher Talking Time)
 Increase STT (Student Talking Time)