English Language Lesson

 

Greek philosopher Socrates From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia	Greek philosopher Plato	Confucius (illustration from Myths & Legends of China, 1922, by E.T.C. Werner)

Answer the following questions:

1. What is learning? Read the following and mark the ones that seem right to you.

____	Learning is getting information.
____	Learning is memorizing information.
____	Learning involves some forms of practice, and reinforces practice.
____	Learning is a change in behavior.
____	Learning is imitation and association.
____	Other. Learning is _____________________________________________________

2. Which do you think are the best ways to learn English? Number the sentences in 1-10 order, #1 being the best.

____	Learning list of vocabulary by heart
____	Writing down the translation of every new word or phrase
____	Learning grammar rules, with example sentences
____	Reading as much as possible in class
____	Speaking as much as possible in class
____	Writing everything down in a notebook and learning it forgetting about grammar and listening to people talking instead
____	Doing lots of grammar exercises- written?
____	Doing lots of exercises - oral?
____	Getting the teacher to correct every time you say a sentence
____	Trying to think in English and not translate into your own language writing essays and getting them corrected by the teacher

3. Why study a foreign language?

4. Why study English?

(from Oxford English Resource Books for Teachers:Classroom Dynamics. Jill Hadfield. Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 35)

Vocabulary: Education and Learning

Below are words and concepts that have to do with education. These words were compiled from Wikipedia, the free on-line encyclopedia. Many of these ideas and concepts are Western concepts of Education and learning. Do not feel that you have to memorize all the definitions below. Rather, they are here for your own curiosity. Explore any concept here further by going to http://www.wikipedia.org/ .

For Discussion: Skim and scan through the explanations below. What concepts below are valued in the educational system of your country? What words and concepts are valued in your country’s educational system that does not appear here?

Education	Education is a term often used to refer to formal education (see below). The word's broader meaning covers a range of experiences, from formal learning to the building of understanding and knowledge through day to day experiences. It is a widely held belief that education is lifelong. Individuals receive informal education from a variety of sources. Family members, peers, books and mass media have a strong influence on the informal education of the individual. Education can often be divided into tactile (hands on), visual (observed) and auditory (listening to instructions/information).
tactile	One learns by touching and manipulating objects.
visual	One learns by seeing—for example, by seeing a word one can spell it.
auditory	One learns by hearing—for example, a lecture may be more effective for a student than reading about it.
	Education also refers to a discipline, a body of theoretical and applied research relating to understanding and improving the processes of teaching and learning. It draws on other disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, sociology and anthropology.
Psychology	Psychology is an academic or applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental health problems. The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek ψυχή psyche ("soul," "mind") and -λογία -ology ("study").
Philosophy	Philosophy is the discipline concerned with the questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). The word itself is of Greek origin: φιλοσοφία (philosophía) is a compound of φίλος (phílos: friend, or lover) and σοφία (sophía: wisdom).
Neuroscience	Neuroscience is a field that is devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system. Such studies may include the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system. Traditionally it is seen as a branch of biological sciences. However, recently there has been a convergence of interest from many allied disciplines, including psychology, computer science, statistics, physics, and medicine.

Sociology	Sociology is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. Sociological research ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. The field focuses on how and why people are organized in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and institutions. As an academic discipline, sociology is typically considered a social science.
Anthropology	Anthropology is the study of the anatomical and mental composition of humanity through the examination of historical and present geographical distribution, cultural history, acculturation, and cultural relationships.
Science	Science , in the broadest sense, refers to any system of objective knowledge. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on the scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research. Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines: Natural sciences, which study natural phenomena, including biological life; Social sciences, which study human behavior and societies
Scientific Method	The scientific method seeks to explain the complexities of nature in a replicable way, and to use these explanations to make useful predictions. It provides an objective process to find solutions to problems in a number of scientific and technological fields. Often scientists have a preference for one outcome over another, and scientists are conscientious that it is important that this preference does not bias their interpretation. A strict following of the scientific method attempts to minimize the influence of a scientist's bias on the outcome of an experiment. This can be achieved by correct experimental design, and a thorough peer review of the experimental results as well as conclusions of a study. Scientists use models to refer to a description or depiction of something, specifically one which can be used to make predictions that can be tested by experiment or observation. A hypothesis is a contention that has been neither well supported nor yet ruled out by experiment. A theory, in the context of science, is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of certain natural phenomena. A theory typically describes the behavior of much broader sets of phenomena than a hypothesis — commonly, a large number of hypotheses may be logically bound together by a single theory. A physical law or law of nature is a scientific generalization based on a sufficiently large number of empirical observations that it is taken as fully verified.
Research	Research is an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising facts. This intellectual investigation produces a greater knowledge of events, behaviors, theories, and laws and makes practical applications possible. The term research is also used to describe an entire collection of information about a particular subject, and is usually associated with the output of science and the scientific method.

Learning	Learning , as the noun, is the body of knowledge and wisdom (that which one learns); as the verb, it is the process of gaining understanding that leads to the modification of attitudes and behaviors through the acquisition of knowledge, skills and values, through study and experience. Learning induces a persistent, measurable or observable, specified behavioral change in the learner to formulate a new mental construct or revise a prior mental construct. The learning process leads to long-term changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential describes an individual’s possible behavior in a given situation to achieve a goal. But potential is not enough; if individual learning is not periodically reinforced, it becomes shallower and shallower, and eventually will be lost in that individual.
Attitude	Attitude is a concept in psychology. Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an "attitude object": i.e. a person, behaviour or event. People can also be "ambivalent" towards a target, meaning that they simultaneously possess a positive and a negative bias towards the attitude in question.
Perception	In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. The word perception comes from the Latin capere, meaning "to take," the prefix per meaning "completely."
Behavior	Behavior refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or unconscious. Behavior should not be mistaken with social behavior, which is more advanced action, as social behavior is behavior specifically directed at other people.
Skill	A skill is an ability, usually learned and acquired through training, to perform actions which achieve a desired outcome.
Study	To study means to acquire knowledge about a given subject, often by memorization or reading.
Understanding	Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as, person, situation and message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.
Knowledge	Knowledge is what is known. Like the related concepts truth, belief, and wisdom, there is no single definition of knowledge on which scholars agree, but rather numerous theories and continued debate about the nature of knowledge. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association, and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.

Truth	A common dictionary definition of truth is "agreement with fact or reality". There is no single definition of truth about which the majority of scholars agree, and many theories of truth (often involving different definitions of "truth") continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; how to define and identify truth; what roles do revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute.
Belief	Belief is the psychological state in which an individual is convinced of the truth of a proposition. Like the related concepts truth, knowledge, and wisdom, there is no precise definition of belief on which scholars agree, but rather numerous theories and continued debate about the nature of belief.
Wisdom	Wisdom is the ability, developed through experience, insight and reflection, to discern truth and exercise good judgment. Wisdom is sometimes conceptualized as an especially well developed form of common sense. Most psychologists regard wisdom as distinct from the cognitive abilities measured by standardized intelligence tests. Wisdom is often considered to be a trait that can be developed by experience, but not taught.
Mental FunctionsandCognitive Processes	Mental functions and cognitive processes are terms often used interchangeably to mean such functions or processes as perception, introspection, memory, creativity, imagination, conception, belief, reasoning, volition, and emotion — in other words, all the different things that we can do with our minds. The term cognition (Latin: cognoscere, "to know") is used in several loosely related ways to refer to a faculty for the human-like processing of information, applying knowledge and changing preferences. Cognition or cognitive processes can be natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives and in different contexts, in anesthesia, neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer science. The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence. Cognition is an abstract property of advanced living organisms; therefore, it is studied as a direct property of a brain or of an abstract mind on subsymbolic and symbolic levels.
Introspection	Introspection is contemplation on one's self, as opposed to extrospection, the observation of things external to one's self. Introspection may be used synonymously with self-reflection and used in a similar way. Introspection is like the activity described by Plato when he asked, "...why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts, and thoroughly examine and see what these appearances in us really are?" (Theaetetus, 155)

Memory	In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and subsequently recall information. Although traditional studies of memory began in the realms of philosophy, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a new branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, a marriage between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Creativity	Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness.
Value System	Each individual or culture has certain underlying values that contribute to their value system (see value in semiotics). Values are subjective and may vary across people and cultures.
Subjectivity and Objectivity	In reason, subjectivity refers to the property of perceptions, arguments, and language as being based in a subject point of view, and hence influenced in accordance with a particular bias. Its opposite property is objectivity, which refers to such as based in a separate, distant, and unbiased point of view, such that concepts discussed are treated as objects.
Imagination	Imagination is accepted as the innate ability and process to invent partial or complete personal realms within the mind from elements derived from sense perceptions of the shared world. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as "imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination. Imagined images are seen with the "mind's eye".
Emotion	Emotion , in its most general definition, is an intense mental state that arises autonomically in the nervous system rather than through conscious effort, and evokes either a positive or negative psychological response. An emotion is often differentiated from a feeling.
Intelligence	Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related mental abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. Although intelligence is sometimes viewed quite broadly, psychologists typically regard the trait as distinct from creativity, personality, character, or wisdom.

Academic and Academia

Academia is a collective term for the scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and peer-reviewed research, taken as a whole. An academic is a person who works as a researcher (and usually teacher) at a university or similar institution in post-secondary (or tertiary) education. He or she is nearly always an advanced degree holder who does peer-reviewed research. In the United States, the term academic is approximately synonymous with that of the job title professor. In the United Kingdom, various titles are used, typically fellow, lecturer, reader, and professor (see also academic rank), though the loose term don is often popularly substituted. The term scholar is sometimes used with equivalent meaning to that of "academic" and describes in general those who attain mastery in a research discipline.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking consists of the mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions that people have offered as true. It forms a process of reflecting upon the meaning of statements, examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and forming judgments about the facts. Critical thinkers can gather such information from observation, experience, reasoning, and/or communication. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual values that go beyond subject-matter divisions and which include: clarity, accuracy, precision, evidence, thoroughness and fairness.

Study Skill A:

Listening Skills

You probably spend more time using your listening skills than any other kind of skill. Like other skills, listening takes practice.

What does it mean to really listen?

Real listening is an active process that has three basic steps.

1. Hearing. Hearing just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is saying. For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras, and the speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact, then you have heard what has been said.
2. Understanding. The next part of listening happens when you take what you have heard and understand it in your own way. Let's go back to that report on zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that might mean. You might think, "Maybe this means that the pattern of stripes is different for each zebra."
3. Judging. After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? You might think, "How could the stripes to be different for every zebra? But then again, the fingerprints are different for every person. I think this seems believable."

Tips for being a good listener

• Give your full attention on the person who is speaking. Don't look out the window or at what else is going on in the room.

• Make sure your mind is focused, too. It can be easy to let your mind wander if you think you know what the person is going to say next, but you might be wrong! If you feel your mind wandering, change the position of your body and try to concentrate on the speaker's words.

• Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk. Speakers appreciate having the chance to say everything they would like to say without being interrupted. When you interrupt, it looks like you aren't listening, even if you really are.

• Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak! You can't really listen if you are busy thinking about what you want say next.

• Listen for main ideas. The main ideas are the most important points the speaker wants to get across. They may be mentioned at the start or end of a talk, and repeated a number of times. Pay special attention to statements that begin with phrases such as "My point is..." or "The thing to remember is..."

• Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask. It is a good idea to repeat in your own words what the speaker said so that you can be sure your understanding is correct. For example, you might say, "When you said that no two zebras are alike, did you mean that the stripes are different on each one?"

• Give feedback. Sit up straight and look directly at the speaker. Now and then, nod to show that you understand. At appropriate points you may also smile, frown, laugh, or be silent. These are all ways to let the speaker know that you are really listening. Remember, you listen with your face as well as your ears!

Thinking fast

Remember: time is on your side! Thoughts move about four times as fast as speech. With practice, while you are listening you will also be able to think about what you are hearing, really understand it, and give feedback to the speaker.

Exercises and Activities for Skill A:

Listen to the Presentation: You will hear people from Pakistan reflecting on how students learn English in Pakistan. First, an English teacher presents some ideas. Then, there are four people responding to her ideas.

Before listening, answer the following questions:

What is Mimicry? The title of this presentation is “Masters of Mimicry.” If this is about learning English, what do you think the title means?

Do you know the history of Pakistan? Whom would they be mimicking given this history?

The way that you learn English in your country, do you mimic anyone?

Listen to the presentation once. Just listen. Get used to the voices. Hear what the people are saying in the presentation. You may want to hear it again to just absorb and familiarize yourself with the speakers.

Look at the questions below (after the presentation). Read the questions under the “Hearing” section. Then listen to the presentation and listen for the answers to the questions.

Look at the questions below under the “Understanding” section. Listen to the presentation again. You may want to write down ideas that come into your head.

Lecture/Presentation:

(transcript): Masters of Mimicry

I teach Language and Literature at a school in Karachi, Pakistan. I am very interested in issues related to education and hope to obtain my Masters in Education in the near future. I wrote this essay about learning English in Pakistan and I’d welcome your input. The essay is called: Masters of Mimicry. (November 9, 1999, http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00000681&channel=university%20ave)

As an English teacher I wanted to know what the concept of being educated meant to my students. Through discussion we realized that learning how to read, write and speak English was not enough and concluded that it was more "knowing how to question, listening to others and learning how to be civilized". This definition of education then involved a development of the self along with literacy. Thus, here reading and writing becomes more a means to an end rather than the end itself. My question is why no one ever takes this definition of education into account when walking into the classroom.

Since childhood, school had always involved a separation from my immediate environment and the texts that we studied in the classroom. I was a voracious reader and consumed Enid Blyton regularly. In school, where I was supposed to demonstrate my mastery in writing, I wrote skillful stories on Christmas parties and snowy days. I could empathize with blue-eyed British girls called Kate and her frustrations with friends, parents and that darned weather and was marked handsomely. Writings about my family or my experiences in Pakistan never went beyond the superficial "what I did last weekend." I never really thought about the absurdity of this whole situation until I left Pakistan for undergraduate studies and was introduced to a phenomenon that seemed very bizarre at first - South Asian experiences in print. That too to be studied in the classroom - usually the mosque-like sanctuary where upon walking in, you left your immediate environment out like rubber slippers. Now that I am teaching however, I am once again faced with students relating more easily to essays where they must assume the identity of a schoolbag rather than describing their sister's Mehndi (hand decorations from henna).

I cannot blame my students however. They will write what has been modeled to them which is only English and now increasingly American authors. What is to blame is a stodgy old Brit-based education system that has been around for too long and has made the "chalk-and talk" classroom approach synonymous with teaching. What is also to blame is a passive acceptance of these decades old teaching methods and a lack of questioning on what it is we are exactly trying to impart to our students. Unfortunately, the validity of our education system world-wide is based on how well we can replicate the original British-system. Those schools who have done a better job at this preservation are held in higher repute than others. The rest remain cheap imitations of the original. The teaching of English in Pakistan, as far as I know it, has never bothered to include the experience of the student and thus requires them to assume an English mentality for successful analysis of textual material. Sadly, the study of literature then requires no creation just mimicry.

The importance of integrating the student's immediate environment in the text has become important to me. I do not mean to suggest that English texts should be thrown out of our curriculum. That would be a ridiculous thing to suggest. I would suggest including the student in literary analysis. Literature of all kinds can have global relevance if interpreted that way. I also think that the English curriculum should introduce South Asian writers. Students should be encouraged to relate their own experiences to those in the text. Student writing should be shared with the class so that the mystique behind "the author" is unmasked and students can feel more free critiquing and questioning the 'authenticity' of writing.

I would like to conclude by amending a statement I made earlier in this essay. I was wrong before to say that our education systems are not creating anything, for we seem to be creating masters of mimicry. I feel that's a fine pertinent example I can use the next time I want to explain irony to my literature class.

Response #1: Well, first of all, congratulations on a good article.

Ok, well I think that the fact that we are learning more in terms of western life rather than our own life is bad but we shouldn’t be totally clueless about the world around us. So in my opinion, we should not just say that Western culture is being used too much in our schools. I know it is, and we definitely should include books by south Asian writers, but we also should not have only South Asian cultures. Rather, we should learn from examples from all over the world, so that we can learn not only about the richness of our culture, but also the richness of other cultures such as the Caribbean Islands, or Japan, or Russia. In school, we should be taught how to respond to writers of different nationalities.

People in Pakistan seem to think that everything about the West is ideal. But I would say this: If you look around, there's your East and your West. When you turn around, your West becomes your East and vice versa. True, they are more advanced in many ways, but in trying to learn from their experiences, we shouldn't lose our own identities. This sometimes happens, as we are so used to reading books by Western authors, our minds begin to work on the system and mode of life that an American or European engages in. So, my whole point in this response is that yes, the curriculum of the schools in Pakistan should be changed to offer a variety of different ideas and thoughts by different people from all over the world.

Maybe I might have stretched out of the topic in some places in this response, so please don't mind, since I'm new to this way of evaluating other people's articles. I'm glad you have written this article, so that more and more people like me can think about issues like these; issues that we have never even considered, being so used to the way of life we lead. Keep it up.

Response #2: But in all our other subjects we focus on nothing but ourselves and nationalism. It is refreshing in English class to set our sights far from here and be curious about other people. I like learning about other ways of life. I know about life here already. I want to know about other places.

Response #3: Do you know how to talk about your own culture to people from other cultures? How do you explain yourself to others? I can describe things that are English in English or I can describe something about America in English because I am taught the vocabulary! But I don’t have the vocabulary to talk to an English or American person about those things that are Pakistani! You talk about Mehndi. You say “Mehndi” to an American and they don’t understand what you’re talking about. How do you explain Mehndi in English? For us to have a voice in today’s world, we need to have the vocabulary to explain ourselves.

Response #4: What do English speakers want to know about Pakistan? Why do they want to know about Pakistan? Do we learn English to explain ourselves to the world? No, we learn English to be a part of the world that speaks English.

(end of transcript)

(based on a discussion found at: http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00000681&channel=university%20ave )

Exercises and Activities for Skill A:

Discussion: Hearing, Understanding, Judging. After you have heard and read the presentation and have listened to the responses, answer the following questions in small groups.

Hearing:

• Who is the writer of the presentation?
• What are some of the main points that the presenter is making?
• From what you have read and heard, what kind of education do they have in Pakistan?

Understanding:

• From what you have read and heard, compare and contrast the educational system in your country to the educational system in Pakistan.

Judging:

• Is mimicking another country’s educational practices highly valued in your country?
• What are the major challenges for learning English in your country?
• Do you think that modernizing education means that you are adopting Western ideas and ideals?

Study Skill B: Discussions

Why do we have discussions at University?

• To understand a subject or topic area more deeply.
• To expand and clarify your knowledge.
• To improve your ability to think critically.
• A discussion can helps a group to make a particular decision or come to a conclusion.
• A discussion gives you the chance to hear the thoughts and ideas of other students.
• To improve your language skills.
• To increase your confidence in speaking.
• A discussion can change your attitudes and ideas.

Some discussion skills include:

• agree with what someone has said or;
• ask them to expand on their point (ask for an example or for more information)
• prepare a question to ask beforehand.

You can then work up to:

• answering a question put to the group
• providing an example for a point under discussion
• disagreeing with a point.

Why do we have discussions at University?

• To understand a subject or topic area more deeply.
• To expand and clarify your knowledge.
• To improve your ability to think critically.
• A discussion can helps a group to make a particular decision or come to a conclusion.
• A discussion gives you the chance to hear the thoughts and ideas of other students.
• To improve your language skills.
• To increase your confidence in speaking.
• A discussion can change your attitudes and ideas.

 

Voicing an opinion and arguing a point effectively

What is an argument?

To 'argue' in an academic context is to present an opinion through the process of reasoning, supported by evidence. An argument seeks to persuade through rational and critical judgment. In academic writing an argument is sometimes called a claim or a thesis statement, which is also supported with evidence.

How do we argue at university?

The everyday meaning of the term argument implies a fight: an aggressive conflict or confrontation between adversaries, where one tries to dominate the other in order to 'win'. At university this kind of arguing is not appropriate.

The aim of academic argument is to explore a question, proposition or an area of knowledge and achieve reasoned mutual understanding. It is not important who 'wins'—what matters most is the quality of the argument itself.

When you engage in academic argument in your tutorial discussions, you are developing your ideas, advancing and clarifying your knowledge and learning to think critically.

Voicing an Opinion

Participating in a tutorial discussion can be a bit scary, especially when you want to disagree with a point of view and are not sure how to, or of which language structures to use. Voicing your opinion and using effective arguing techniques are valuable skills.

You may have a great idea, but you need to communicate it effectively and support it. The three essential parts to a point of view are:

1. A valid opinion (a believable point of view)	2. A reason why
I believe that ... I think that ... From what I understand ... As I understand it ...	This is due to ... Because ... What I mean by this is ...
3. Evidence (relevant and up-to-date examples, statistics, explanations and/ or expert opinions). If you have actual data, examples or expert opinions on hand, refer to the source.
This can be seen by ... For instance ... For example ... An example can be seen ... (Author’s name) states that ... (Author’s name) suggests... Statistics from (give a source) indicate ...

Arguing a Point: How to disagree effectively

Disagreeing can be problematic as people often speak before they think things through. It is also important to disagree politely. You may be trying to disprove another speaker’s point, but

1. Acknowledge their point	2. Then explain why you disagree
I can see your point--however ... That’s a good point, but ... I see what you’re getting at, but ...	That’s not always the case because ... That’s not necessarily true because ... This idea isn’t supported by statistics/ evidence ... I thought the author meant that ...
3. Offer your opinion complete with reason and support
From what I’ve read ... The statistics seem to show that ... I think what Smith may actually be suggesting is ... Other studies by Smith show that ...

Now, be prepared for counter-argument and further discussion!

Remember, confidence is the key. If you do your tutorial preparation and think things through, you can speak with confidence and believe that your contribution will be valid.  

Discussion Etiquette (or minding your manners)

In order to successfully negotiate tutorial discussion, courtesy is important. The following are a few ground rules for good conduct.

Do

• Respect the contribution of other speakers.
• Speak pleasantly and with courtesy to all members of the group.
• Listen well to the ideas of other speakers; you will learn something.
• Remember that a discussion is not a fight. Learn to disagree politely.
• Respect that others have differing views and are not necessarily 'wrong'.
• Think about your contribution before you speak. How best can you answer the question/ contribute to the topic?
• Try to stick to the discussion topic. Don't introduce irrelevant information.
• Be aware of your body language when you are speaking. Keep it open and friendly. Avoid gestures that appear aggressive.
• Agree with and acknowledge what you find interesting.
• Stay with the topic. If the discussion does digress, bring it back on topic by saying something like 'Just a final point about the last topic before we move on' or 'that’s an interesting point, can we come back to that later?
• Try to speak clearly. Don’t whisper; even if you’re feeling uncertain about your ideas or language.

Don't

• Don't take offence if a person disagrees with you. There will be times when other speakers will have different points of view. They may disagree with your ideas, and they are entitled to do so.
• Don’t ridicule the contribution of others. Don’t use comments like ‘that’s stupid’, that’s ridiculous, or ‘you’re wrong’.
• Don’t try to intimidate or insult another speaker.
• Don’t use a loud or angry tone. Others will not want to listen to you if you are being aggressive. Use a moderate tone and medium pitch.
• Avoid negative body language when speaking. Gestures like finger-pointing and table-thumping appear aggressive.
• Try not to dominate the discussion. Confident speakers should allow quieter students a chance to contribute.
• Avoid drawing too much on personal experience or anecdote. Although some tutors encourage students to reflect on their own experience, remember not to generalize too much.
• Don’t interrupt or talk over another speaker. Let them finish their point before you start. Listening to others earns you the right to be heard.

(source: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/disc.html#top#top)  

Exercises and Activities for Listening Study Skill B:

In Small Groups Discuss: In the Listening Section of this chapter, you heard some ideas from people in Pakistan about how and what they learn in English. Do you find that there are some similarities to how people in your country learn English? What is the discussion that people would have about learning English in your country?

After Your Discussion: Write a transcript showing the ideas and arguments that you had in your discussion. Use the same format that the Listening Section in the chapter used. That is, have one speaker present their ideas about English Learning in Vietnam. Then have other speakers respond to those ideas. Refer to Skill B for presenting ideas, disagreeing and presenting one’s opinion. Perhaps your teacher will have you present these transcripts to the class.

Back to Top

Vietnamese Language Lesson

Figure 1. The American educational system

Figure 2. The Vietnamese educational system

Vocabulary: The following is a list of vocabulary that can be used to describe American and Vietnamese educational systems. As you learn the words, look at the charts above and see how they relate to each other.

Cấu trúc -	Structure
Hệ thống giáo dục -	Educational system
Hướng nghiệp -	Vocational
Mầm non -	Nursery
Mẫu giao -	Kindergarten
Trường tiểu học -	Primary (Elementary) school
Cử nhan -	Bachelor
Thạc sĩ -	Master
Tiến Sĩ -	Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Nâng cao -	Advanced
Chuyên nghiệp -	Professional
Nghiên cứu sau Tiến Sĩ -	Post-doctoral Research
Tín chỉ -	Credit
Hệ thống cho điểm -	Grading system
Đánh giá -	Evaluation

Exercise 1: Get in groups of two or three students. One of you is assumed to be Vietnamese and the other American. Look at the educational system charts above and talk about your own learning experience since you entered nursery school.

Exercise 2: After you have finished your discussion, start a class presentation that seeks to identify how cultural, geographical, and political factors play roles in educational systems. How can inter-cultural activities help us to understand more clearly about other cultures and distinct education systems? Where are education trends going in countries that are differently developed? Where are the most needs?

 

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Persian Language Lesson

Persian Section

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Spanish Language Lesson

Spanish Section

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