1. Exercise on Group Discussion Skills

2. 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

3. Starting the discussion
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

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

5. 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.

6. Asking for opinions e.g. What do you think?
M _______________ e.g. __________________
P _______________ e.g. __________________
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…

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

8. Shall we ______? Today we need to ___ ________________________________
Based on 2003 Set 14 ‘Pets: Man’s best friend’, write out your ideas using the following sentence structures
Shall we ______? Today we need to ___
________________________________
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

9. In addition to ____________________, ________________________ can be
included because _________________
________________________________
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.

10. So far, we’ve discussed_____________
____________________________________ .
Shall we move on to discuss _____________ ?
Who should be our target readers? I
think ________________________________
because _____________________________
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