Dialogues
An example from Prepare for Discussion.
The dialogues provide realistic contexts for practising colloquial expressions used in discussion. They can be read aloud in pairs and then used as a starting point for further discussion.
Cultural differences
Read aloud in pairs. The expressions in italics are examples of colloquial language used in discussion.
A: What do you think is the problem between the English and the Americans?
B: That's a very interesting question, because both nationalities share a common language and are usually on the same side in war-time, yet they rarely speak well of one another on a personal level.
A: Are we talking about a struggle for superiority?
B: Yes, but we measure our superiority in different ways. Ours is cultural and historical. We believe we're more civilised. We're the country of Shakespeare and the industrial revolution. Americans visit England in search of culture and history.
A: So in what ways are they superior?
B: Well, obviously in size. Everything's bigger - their country, their salaries, their roads, their companies. Theirs is the land of MacDonald's, Coca Cola, Microsoft and IBM. They enjoy telling us that they're the best.
A: And are they right?
B: Yes, if you measure success purely in dollars, but there're two points here. Firstly, many English people actually believe that "Small is Beautiful". They prefer countries where you don't get mugged in parks and subways.
A: What's the other point?
B: I was coming to that. It's the difference in character. Maybe you think you're the best in the world, but you don't go shouting about it from the rooftops. Americans lack our modesty and reserve. They're probably warmer and more friendly, but they're often very loud and extrovert to go with it.
A: So you prefer the British character?
B: Not entirely. We tend to be rather oblique in our conversation. When Americans speak, you can take them literally, but when English people speak you have to read between the lines.
How and why use dialogues?
Role play and contextualisation
Dialogues can be used in a number of ways. See The use of dialogues in language teaching in the English language teaching section of this website.
Both Prepare for Discussion and Extend Your Discussion use dialogues for role play in pairs. Speakers A and B often have opposing views, giving learners an opportunity to practise discussion as well as the language needed to take part in it.
The dialogues also provide contexts for the colloquial expressions commonly used in discussion. In Prepare for Discussion, these expressions are shown in italics so that learners can notice them while reading or performing the dialogue.
From dialogues to discussion techniques
The book contains an appendix with extracts from the dialogues in which the colloquial expressions occur. This provides a functional analysis of discussion techniques.
The expressions are organised into ten main sections:
- Asking someone for their opinion about a topic
- Delaying strategies
- Presenting a number of arguments
- Giving your opinion about a topic
- Agreeing
- Disagreeing
- Countering
- Logical argument
- Clarification
- Expressing solutions and alternatives
Practise the discussion techniques online
There is a series of interactive matching exercises on this website based on the appendix. Learners are asked to associate utterances from conversations with the appropriate category from the ten listed above.
The exercises provide a further opportunity to notice how these expressions work in actual conversations.
Using the expressions independently
One of the main challenges is to match an extract involving a particular discussion technique with the topic from which it has been taken.
A further challenge is to reproduce the discussion technique in a context of the student's own creation. In this way, learners move from recognising useful expressions to using them independently.
These dialogues are one of the exercise types used in Prepare for Discussion and Extend Your Discussion.