Exercise on Group Discussion Skills

A. Structure of a group discussion In a good group discussion, there should be ______________ parts: an introduction, a ___________ and a _____________. The approximate allocation of time is 1 minute, _______ minutes and _________ minutes respectively. 3 body conclusion 7 2

Discussion skills that candidates can display at different times of the discussion are as follows: Starting the discussion Introducing the topic Suggesting a framework During the discussion Asking for opinions Making suggestions Summarizing and moving on Agreeing and disagreeing Responding with a reason / an example

During the discussion (continued) Interrupting Clarifying Assisting weaker candidates Closing the discussion Summing up Assigning responsibilities

B. Group discussion skills Candidates are expected to display a wide range of discussion skills in the 10-minute discussion. Complete the following formula and give an example for each item. For each skill, the first letter is given as hint.

1.Asking for opinions e.g. What do you think? 2.M _______________ e.g. __________________ 3.P _______________ e.g. __________________ 4.M _______________ e.g. __________________ 5.S _______________ e.g. __________________ aking suggestions I think…… assing turns Is this a good idea, Miss Chan? oving on Shall we move on to discuss…? ummarising So far, we’ve discussed…

6. A _______________ e.g. ________________ 7. R _______________ e.g. ________________ 8. C _______________ e.g. ________________ 9. I _______________ e.g. ________________ 10. A _______________ e.g. ________________ greeing and disagreeing - I agree with you that …because - I’m afraid I can’t agree with you because…. esponding larifying nterrupting ssisting weaker candidates What you’ve said is true but have you ever thought about… What I mean is…. Sorry to interrupt, but… What’s your idea, Mr Wong? Do you agree with our ideas?

C.Based on 2003 Set 14 ‘Pets: Man’s best friend’, write out your ideas using the following sentence structures 1.Shall we ______? Today we need to ___ ________________________________ 2.I think we should include ____________ ___________ in our booklet because __ ________________________________. start plan a booklet entitled ‘Pets: man’s best friends’. the vaccination procedures pet owners need to know about this

3.In addition to ____________________, ________________________ can be included because _________________ ________________________________ 4.How can we gather information for the booklet? I think___________________ ________________________________ 5. How about presenting the information in an interesting way? In order to make the booklet interesting, we can __________ ________________________________ vaccination procedures the advs and disadvs of keeping pets they are good considerations for potential pet owners. we can surf the Internet to get first-hand information. add colourful photos and make the booklet pocket-sized.

6.So far, we’ve discussed_____________ ____________________________________. Shall we move on to discuss _____________ ? 7.Who should be our target readers? I think ________________________________ because _____________________________ 8.As time is running short, let’s make a conclusion. We’ve planned how to _________ ______________________________________ the information to be included and how to gather information. the target readers we should target children and the elderly they often need a pet to accompany them booklet. Shall we assign the responsibilities now? make the