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Four to six small groups try and find a common view or solution to a problem. Each group elects a speaker who remains in the group but enters into discussion with other groups and then returns with messagesThis activity has worked well where several groups work together in a consensus activity. One topic that has worked very well is resource management concerns between several communities.
Market
All of the students walk around the room; each talks with several others.This activity has worked well in polling activities where the students have to poll each other student individually about their opinion on a topic. Afterwards, after they group similar opinions from which an open discussion can be held. Diversity issues have been very successful.
Opinion Vote
Each student receives voting cards with values from 1 to 5 (1=agree completely, 5 = disagree completely). After the issue, which needs to be phrased as a statement, has been discussed for a while, each student votes, and the distribution of different opinions in the group can be seen at a glance.This activity has worked well as a closure for polling opinions at the end of discussions. It is especially useful for very controversial issues that produce many opinions.
Forced Contribution
In order to make sure that all the members of the class or group give their views in the discussion, numbers are distributed which determine the order of speaking.This grouping, much like the network activity, has worked well with most activities. The main purpose is to have the students engage in self-monitoring activities to encourage the reticent into speaking and the boisterous into turn taking.
Argumentation is an important critical thinking skill, but it needs to be nurtured carefully. Kippel's illustration of Cole's classroom dynamics model is an important tool which teachers and students can use to further that aim.
References
Cole, P (1970). An adaptation of Group Dynamics to Foreign Language Teaching. Tesol Quarterly. 4/4.
Kippel, F. Keep Talking: Communicative Fluency Activities for Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Pugh, S. and C. Antommarchi. (1997). Starting With What We Know. Unpublished Paper. Indiana University.
Ur, P. (1994). Discussions That Work: Task Centered Fluency Activities. New York: Cambridge University Press
