Oral comunication skills

1. Discussion: Starter Activity
Work in a group and decide
•The three safest countries in the world
•The three most famous actors/actresses in the world
•The three most exciting movies in the world
•Don’t worry if you don’t agree: it is all part of the conversation!

2. Discussion
• When you are having a discussion, with
friends or in a seminar situation, you need
language to help you:
• Give your opinion
• Agree
• Disagree
• Interrupt
What kind of language do you know in
English that can help you do this?

3. Discussion: language input
• Discussion Language: on the next slide
there are some pieces of language. There
are two tasks to do:
1. Separate the language into opinions,
agreeing, disagreeing and interrupting
2. Work in pairs. Put them in order
according to how polite/formal you think
each piece of language is.

4. • I think As far as I’m concerned…
• You can’t be serious From my viewpoint…
• That is so true Sorry, but……
• As I see it You have to be joking!
• Rubbish! We feel the same on this.
• Absolutely That’s a very good point.
• I’m with you on this Wait a minute!
• Sorry, could I come in here?
• Excuse me, but may I just say….
• I see what you mean, but…
• I totally agree with you.
• I’m afraid I don’t really agree with you

5. Answers: in order of formality
Opinions Disagreeing
From my viewpoint… I’m afraid I don’t really agree with
you
As far as I’m concerned I see what you mean, but…
I think.. Sorry, but…..
You have to be joking!
You can’t be serious!
Agreeing Rubbish!
I totally agree with you
That’s a very good point Interrupting
We feel the same this Excuse me, but may I just say…
That is so true Sorry, could I come in here?
I’m with you on this Sorry, but…
Absolutely Wait a minute!

6. Other factors in a discussion
• How do you do the following in a
discussion:
– 1. Take turns speaking
– 2. Use your voice to indicate your opinion
– 3. Interrupt in a more informal discussion with
friends.
– 4. React to an interruption

7. Seminars vs Social Discussion
• Look at the following discussion topics:
what type of language would you use?
– An academic seminar
– Discussing politics with a friend
– Discussing UFOs
– Talking to an official
– Discussing topics in a pub
– Disagreeing with an older member of your
family

8. Practice 1: Agreeing and
Disagreeing
• Any discussion requires you to give
reasons or facts or examples to explain
you opinion or why you agree/disagree
with someone. Let’s practise this.
• Work in groups. One person will give an
opinion on a topic from the next slide and
the rest of you will agree or disagree with
them; giving your reasons.

9. Topics
• British weather
• Favourite type of movie (action, romance,
sci-fi…)
• Causes of global warming
• The best way to make money
• Current student fashion in clothes
• Making friends abroad
• Other…?

10. Practice 2: interrupting
• Your teacher will talk about international
cuisine.
• Your task is to interrupt whenever you:
– Don’t understand the reference
– Disagree with the teacher’s statements
– Want to give more information on the topic
– Want to ask a question
The idea is to interrupt as much as possible

11. Practice 3: Interrupting
• Look once more at the topics on slide 9.
Each student should choose one topic to
talk about.
• The other students in the group have to
interrupt the speaker as often as possible.
• Remember, everybody interrupts: don’t
get too serious about it!

12. Free Discussion
• Look at the work sheet
that you have been given
and use your discussion
language to help talk
about the topics given