Discussions that work by penny ur
Discussions that work by penny ur
‘Discussions and More’ by Penny Ur
Interrupt me
“1. Tell the students you are going to start telling a story. As soon as anyone thinks of a question to ask about it, he or she should raise a hand.
(from Penny Ur, “Discussions and More”, CUP, 2015)
This activity is great for practising question structures or even drilling them. It also implies using active listening. Instead of telling a story, you can start giving directions or instructions and encourage students to ask for more details. This activity suits all levels and all topics.
Doodles
For this activity, you will need a whiteboard, either a real or a virtual one.
“1. Draw a doodle on the board. This should not be designed to represent anything in particular.
(from Penny Ur, “Discussions and More”, CUP, 2015)
This activity will also be good for a range of levels. You can revise vocabulary, practise Present Continuous or modals of deduction with it. What’s more, it develops creative thinking.
The second section includes longer and more complex activities. Your students will make up stories, think of possible uses of an object, give reasonings, interpret dialogues, speculate and interview each other. My favourite ones from this part are ‘Use the chunk’ and ‘Interpret dialogues’.
Use the chunk
This super simple activity is great for practising new vocabulary. We all know these situations when students can already get the meaning of a word but do not use in speaking or writing.
Interpret dialogues
“1. Write up a dialogue on the board, for example:
– So what was it like?
c Awful!
– Why? What went wrong?
– Nothing. Just a waste of time, that’s all.
– Well, I’m sorry. Maybe next time…
(from Penny Ur, “Discussions and More”, CUP, 2015)
This one can be used as a lead-in for a topic, a way to practise modals of deduction or revisit certain vocabulary.
The third section is about more challenging activities like group discussions, role plays or giving presentations. They cover the levels up to C1 and can easily last for a whole lesson each. My all-time favourites from this chapter are ‘Zoo plan’ and ‘Dinner party’. In both activities, your students will have to arrange people or animals according to some information about them. In ‘Zoo plan’ you get a zoo map and a list of animals. You need to decide which animal should go to which enclosure, taking into consideration some points like “The giraffe is about to give birth so should be in a quiet corner”. ‘Dinner party’ will ask you to arrange the seating at an old-fashioned dinner party. The rules might be the following: “Members of the same family should not sit next to each other”.
The activities from section 3 require collaboration and using a number of skills. Your students will practise agreeing and disagreeing, persuasion and even giving feedback on each other’s performance.
All in all, this book is truly necessary if you want to provide your students with varied and engaging practice of speaking English. Busy teachers will find it to be a real time-saver. If you are just starting your teaching career, ‘Discussions and more’ might be your practical guide to speaking activities and ways of working with them properly.
