This week, at the first turn, Terra was the host of Debate Time. Its stages were very simple. We were divided into 2 groups with 2 people and 3 people. Then, each team was given a piece of paper with several debatable statements. Next, each team began to have a discussion with showing own stance of each member with Agree strongly, Agree, Disagree strongly, and Disagree on cards. Lastly, the stance of agreeing should start first, and another agreeing with her continued the debate with additional reasons and vice versa.
The materials produced useful practices for acquiring formal speaking and attitudes. It was because this activity was in a type of discussion. In the discussion, we should speak in a polite way not using shorten words but using certain expressions like agree, support, be good at, for example, and so on. Also, we should speak up not in a rude attitude even if she didnt have the same opinion as me. For the other aspect, the instruction she gave us was very clear because we had already been familiar with these kinds of speaking. We were even familiar with several debatable topics on the paper. Thus, we could share our ideas into the far deeper points like human dignity, human freewill, or someones realistic experiences. I was very happy to be in this discussion because I love to make my opinions clearly, to listen carefully to others, convince them, and even to be convinced by them. In the topics dealt with, there could appear philosophical questions like human dignity or human senses validity. Because I have always kept these questions in my mind, I could suggest a lot of ideas about them. The practices helped me to speak in a logical way. For example, it was not making my opinion with only arguments, but making my statements and suggestions with both arguments and reasons & pieces of evidence.
This was definitely devised for pedagogical goals. It is because, actually, we usually dont have these formal discussions in our daily lives. To be improved, I want to suggest her to modify something in the process because I felt it was just a normal and typical discussion class like what we had taken in our first year here. Also, there was no background knowledge and no researching time about the topics, so I think that some people might feel very difficult with handling it.
2. The second turn of the day by Yeong-in
In the second turn of the day, Yeong-in was the host for the discussion again. We were very surprised that we would do the same activity. The whole rule was very similar to Terras. However, there was a point different from before one, which is that there would be a winning team according to how many the team used certain expressions on the given paper sheet.
Same with the former activity, this generated very good practices for using debate expressions. She gave a sheet with various expressions from ones related to debate, to ones unrelated. It was quite difficult to both speak out my opinions and, at the same time, use the given expressions. In the topic sheet, there were so many topics with debatable quality. However, in that process, I could raise my language skill very effectively and think more ideas from my brain with using expressions unfamiliar in the debate situation like be honest, be dying to, and so on. The task instruction was clear and concise as well because it was a debate. There was just a difference that we had a duty to be encouraged to put the assigned words in our utterances. I was very pleased to share my ideas with others about the topic like human cloning should be banned. or Animal testing should be banned. It was because, when I was high school students, I win a debate contest with the former topic. As I remembered, there were lots of aspects like human dignity, scientists free will, right for people to live more, and so on. For the topic about animal testing, when I was the first year here, in the critical think and discussion course, I had a debate on it. Thus, I already had a couple of things to say like Human beings and animals are too different each other from the genes; thus, though it results in very good results, it wont be the same with human bodies., and The animal rights should be guaranteed.
In addition, its pedagogical goal was perfect by conducting meaningful discussions. However, to be improved, it will be far better if the expression list can be modified a little bit. I think some expressions on it were unrelated to the topics in the list. Instead of them, if there are the information or expressions related to them, then the discussion will be much more filled with good opinions, and it would be more helpful for students to speak out freely.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 11 Reflections for Amazing
This week, Terra introduced a new activity which was developed than the first material hosting, debate time. Debating requires more advanced English skills than any other activity. In this regard, I thought the activity was more proper for intermediate and advanced students than for beginners. The instruction she wrote included the detailed process of the activity and she also prepared the list of themes. She prepared fourteen different controversial sentences such as Youtubers are paid too much, Violence is necessary sometimes., etc. Also, she gave us four cards, which are the degree of agree/disagree. I played this gave with Youngin, and we were able to discuss many topics because we were in groups of two.
Through this activity, students could practice how to debate with others that was difficult to do at first because it is not easy to discuss in Korean, even in our mother tongue. Although we did not use formal methods to debate, we were able to experience the process of expressing our opinions on the topic with a partner and explaining the opinion with reasons. In addition, there were topics that could be interesting and controversial enough, and there were a variety of topics that allowed us to discuss the subject in more variety. In particular, the debate on whether majority decision is a best way to accept was completely opposed to my partners opinion, which enable me to have a more meaningful discussion. I was most impressed to debate on this topic.
Overall, all parts were good, and this activity was really targeted to debate/discuss with others. Also, I think it brings out both meaningful input and output because Terra prepare well structured instruction with various topics and students can feel their weakness during debating immediately. For me, it was difficult to discuss the difficult topic and explain the reasons which support my opinion in English, but as I repeated it over and over, I learned how to explain it easily and I really enjoyed this activity. There was nothing to improve and next time another topic is added, it will be better. Finally, this activity was related to real life but also include pedagogical goal.
Youngins activity
Youngin introduced a new activity which was similar to Terras, debating activity. However, Youngins activity was formal method to debate because this was group debating. In groups of three, the two groups discussed the issue, clearly dividing the pros and cons, saying to each others arguments and refuting them. She prepared the detailed direction with so any list of vocabulary and idioms such as bring up, break down, keep in mind, etc. She noticed students that we should us phrases provided when we debate and the team who used more phrases with reasonable arguments becomes the winner. Also, she prepared many various topics to debate. This activity was also proper for intermediate or advanced students than for beginners, but I think it was more proper advanced students because group debate requires more advanced skills to argue with others.
Through this activity, we discussed two topics which were human cloning and coeducational school. Our group agree with the idea that human cloning should be banned and agree with the coeducational school. In addition, the list of phrases she gave us to use seemed really helpful in talking our opinions. The expressions we use in the debate is not often used in our daily lives, so we have to think about what words we can use to debate well before we speak, but the list of phrases solved this problem. For me, group discussion was also difficult to say my opinion, but I listened to the other person and tried to refute it. Although I was not much active, I tried to tell the arguments I wanted to say. I though this activity had a pedagogical goal and meaningful input and output. In addition, there were topics that could be interesting and controversial enough, and we can choose one.
At first, it was not satisfactory to arbitrarily decided pros and cons. However, during the discussion, I felt this method rather broadens the scope of thought and enhanced the thinking ability. Overall, it had clear goal and well structured but there were some points to improve. Various topics were good, but there were so many that it was difficult to choose one or two things and there was not enough time to choose. Therefore, it would be better for the host to decide just the category or do draw lots, and the students to choose from among them. Also, it was goo to talk freely, but it would feel more like a formal debate if the rules of speaking in the order of the first three statements speakers were added.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 11 Reflections for Amazing
Similar to that of our previous class, another two hosts led today's class. Both of them introduced us with "debate", so here I am labelling them as debate 1 and debate 2 for the first session and second session respectively. Delving into our first debate, this leaned more towards reaching real-life goals. Though each of us had to choose among agree, disagree, strongly agree, and strongly disagree, we had the freedom to go with the same argument as others and did not have to use any specific phrases or words nor did we have to follow certain specific order while speaking; this was part was nice since it was very close to real-world situations where we almost never set up rules but just speak rather freely with our own opinions.
Meanwhile, I believe this activity would also suit for classroom environments with students having specific academic goals. Many speaking tests such as TOEFL which assess English proficiency skills through academic discourse require students to choose between pros and cons or agree and disagree to express their opinions. Unfortunately, many Korean public schools and private institutions make students write down what they should say and tell them to memorize the full written version so that they can be more perfect when they speak; yet, we can never predict what would be on the exams. In other words, it is not a "real" speaking practice, and this kind of material which our first host had prepared would be one good solution. Keep going!
Debate 2
Moving onto the next session of our class, we did another debate. Unlike how the first host led the class, the second session focused more on attaining pedagogical goals. Although we did not have any designated grammatical rules, we had to divide up into two groups (three people each including the host) and approve for one round and then disapprove for the next round. In the real-world, however, we usually express our own opinions rather than elaborating more on how others have decided us to say. Thus, if I had to point out one thing for improvement, I would suggest letting each group member be on whatever side they want to be and share their own ideas; this would be more "natural", more like a practice for "real-life" settings.
Still, one good thing here was that we were able to indirectly practice "focused listening". Since we had to focus on listening how the opponents asserted their opinions and come up with our own thoughts to refute and persuade, it in turn provided us with the opportunity to concentrate and carefully listen to others more than when we just have simple, short conversations. Except for the fact that we could only talk about two topics due to time limit, the rest went all well. Keep going!
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 11 Reflections for Amazing
1.The first activity we had was having a debate and it was hosted by me. We paired up with 2 or 3 people each team and had a free debate time. This activity might have been meaningless when it is not well organized, and I didnt want the time to be spent idly. So, I prepared some opinion cards written Agree, Disagree, Agree strongly, and disagree strongly. After choosing and showing their stance, I set the order to speak. To improve the speaking ability, I asked them to show the opinion with sufficient reasons. But next time, I should additionally ask them to provide their prior experience while sharing their opinion, because it will be more helpful to increase the skill demands of a task and the content knowledge, by making them easier to speak, reminding of their previous experiences. People who agrees have a chance to share the opinion first, and then the opponents share their opinion. Not only should sharing the opinion but they should also restate what the others talked about and say the specific part she agrees or disagrees. This part requires the learners ability to listen to what others talk about carefully. Because, if she doesnt pay attention and miss the part, she wont be able to either agree or dispute. Choosing the questions directly leads to the level of difficulty, so I was concerned what questions to choose. I prepared 14 questions, and most of them were the questions that are very thinkable while living the life, for example, violence is necessary sometimes, English is the most important language to learn, and so on. However, I thought that it would have been better to choose the questions regarding to our major. As we are all TESL majors, questions asking about things related to English education, or being a teacher such as Knowledge is the most important property that language teacher should have or receiving vocabulary by writing repeatedly is the best way and so on could be more familiar and meaningful.
2.The second activity we had was also having a debate. I was surprised that Youngin and I prepared the similar activity. However, the rules were different. All the 6 people were involved, and we were divided into two teams which were either pro side or con side. We had to choose 2 statements out of about 10 statements. We spent quite a long time to choose the statement because we should hear all the 6 peoples opinion. Maybe next time, it would be better to shorten the time choosing the statement and spend more time on debating. Also, it was a good try to put the rules to say the phrase in front of the utterance, that are widely usable in debates such as because of, as a matter of fact, as long as I know and so on. I felt like those phrases made my opinion more fruitful, and the statement was clearer with using those phrases in advance. Comparing to mine, which was rather a free interaction, it was good to divide into 3 people for each team and have an actual debate and listen to various opinions. However, I did not know the standard of which stance I should stand for. In the case of the topic, coed schools are better than girls/boys school, I came out girls middle school, high school, and I am currently in womens university, so I had tons of things to say about the advantages or things Ive learned by going to girls school, while having relatively lack of things to say about coed schools because I had little experience. I had no choice but to be in the pro side, so I could not express my idea well. Next time, it could be better if we decide our stances after hearing what we think about. Same with the activity which I prepared, this one was also a helpful activity to improve both speaking and listening skills. Having a debate is a typical interactional listening, so I had to listen very carefully of what the other sides are talking about. By listening, I could catch the parts that I partially agree and the parts I could totally dispute. However, I thought that the first topic we had, human cloning should be banned, was quite challenging, because I struggled with thinking of the appropriate words in English even though I knew them in Korean. The more interesting topics that we can relate to or that can come up with our previous experiences might make more meaningful discuss.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 11 Reflections for Amazing
The first activity was hosted by Terra. Dividing the group into two, the host distributed four papers for each person. On the papers, there were very disagree, disagree, agree, very agree which stood for the degree of agreement or disagreement. By reading through the 14 debatable statements one by one, my partner and I raised up the card reflecting my opinion toward the statement. When we had a topic Face-to-face communication is better than other types of communication, I raised up very agree and said my experience of miscommunication due to lack of emotional transmission of mobile message.
The activity seemed to be targeting on the logical conversation of participants. In order to express ones opinion without any difficulties, the student should possess a profound basic knowledge of grammar, pronunciation, and sentence structure. Based on the substructional activity of 10 weeks, the participants are able to apply the knowledge they piled up into a real conversation. Moreover, the learners can compare their spoken sentences with their partners. When my partner and I raised up the same opinion toward the same topic, even though our answer was same but the reason was totally different. For instance, according to the statement Violence is necessary sometimes, I interpreted the word Violence as a fight between friends but my partner thought it as a punishment from parents. It was really meaningful to find out the difference between the thoughts of others.
The feedback I would like to give host is mainly about the statements(topics). I really liked the diversity, but most of them seemed to be focused on the secondary school of US. For instance, the statements such as All students should be mandatorily required to study art and music in secondary school. and It is more important to study history than math. was quite difficult for university students to answer correctly. Therefore, I think the activity would be much better if the topics cover all ranges of age and occupation.
I was the one hosting the second activity. Participants are given a paper with debate topic lists and significant English phrases list, and the host let them choose two of them. Within 30 minutes, participants start debate one topic for 15 minutes and the other for 15 minutes. While they are discussing, they should use the given expressions as much as they can. The team which used more phrases with reasonable arguments becomes the winner. The reason why I created the activity in this way can be divided into two reasons.
Firstly, I thought there should be an activity with less restrictions and formation. Without dividing the process in a detail, I tried to let participants express their opinions freely. I spent half of my time on choosing proper and interesting topics for students, which is crucial for intriguing the spontaneity of students. Moreover, throughout the activities so far, I found out that most of the students were quite fluent at speaking but the problem was that they were repeating the expressions they feel convenience on and on. I thought there should be an improvement. Therefore, by providing 30~40 numbers of useful phrases, I let the students apply those in the sentence they make.
Although I was taking a role as a host, I also participated as a learner in order to divide the group with the same number. The topic we chose was Single-sex schools are better for students. and Human cloning should be banned.. While proceeding the activity, the participants were eager to use more expressions than their opponent team, which made the atmosphere more active and fun. These are the expressions that teammates used :
What Id like to say is, we should ban the human cloning.
Please keep in mind that human is different from animal. We have thinking power and human right.
By the way, how do you think about the accident happened in Seoul National University last month?
According to the thesis from Han(2010), applying the phrases into the sentence they use raises the memory as well as the flexibility of changing the form of the phrases according to the tense.
References
Hyemin Han,(2010).A Study on the Syntactic Diagraming to Improve Learners Understanding of Sentence Structures -Focusing on the D.,24(),161-187.eterminer Clauses
