Are you looking for a dedicated discussion course which is easy to use and will expand your active vocabulary through "odd one out" exercises, short texts and themed crosswords while adopting a functional approach to listening and speaking through the colloquial expressions practised in the dialogues?
Ted Power's Prepare for Discussion was published on 19th April 2024 and made available on Amazon as a 208-page paperback priced at £8.37.
The project
The material is very rich in vocabulary and should prove useful to learners who are expected to participate in discussions covering a wide range of themes. The 28 topics are alternative beliefs, animal welfare, the arts, crime and punishment, cultural differences, economics, education, environment, fashion, health, holidays, language learning, male & female roles, marriage, the media, political systems, religion, rich world : poor world, science and technology, society, sport, traditions, transport, travel, violence, work and youth & old age.
The author
I hold a Master of Arts degree in Second Language Learning and Teaching, a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, French and Economics, a Postgraduate Certificate of Education awarded with distinction and a Cambridge Delta Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I have held overseas posts teaching English language in an Algerian Secondary School, in a Swedish steelworks, and in a Spanish electronics factory, though most of my teaching experience was at the English Language Centre in Brighton and Hove where I was Teaching Resources Manager for several years. A bad road traffic accident terminated my career prematurely, but since the late 1990s I have offered free materials through my own website. Over that time people have visited the website especially for pronunciation, teaching and discussion materials. In 2024, I decided to publish the discussion materials in paperback form undertaking a lot of rewriting to exert quality control.
Prepare for Discussion
Prepare for Discussion follows a sequence of exercises containing core vocabulary and useful colloquial expressions in the lead up to discussing each of the 28 popular topics. In this way, it sets out to minimise the disappointment which can occur when learners are expected to discuss semi-specialist material without adequate preparation.
Exercise types
Please take the links below for examples of the exercise types you will find in the books as well as my thoughts on the value of these exercises in teaching discussion
- odd one out vocabulary exercise
- short texts for listening / reading comprehension or listening & writing tasks such as dictation
- dialogues for reading in pairs
- discussion questions
- themed crosswords including grids, clues and answer keys
There is also an appendix containing extracts from the dialogues allowing systematic practice of the colloquial expressions used in discussion.
Prepare for Discussion
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