Technology Quick Share

Click this link to see the presentation.

The activity is called: Language Limbo, Debating Controversial Topics

it's from the book: Teaching ESL/EFL with the Internet: Catching the Wave

Level: Advanced, suggested time: five 50-minute sessions

This main part of this activity is meant to get students to prepare to hold an in-class debate on some controversial topic by seraching for information on the internet.

Looking at the activity as presented in the book Catching the Wave, my first reaction was that it seemed to emphasize "outside of class" work and individual work quite a lot. This might be appropriate for certain advanced classes, or perhaps highly-motivated advanced-level adult or university classes, but it seemed to me that it could be made into a much more useful and communicative activity if most (or even all) of the parts of the activity were done in small groups.

For example, students could get in a lot of useful conversation and discussion practice DURING the information-gathering phase. Again, depending on the level and level of motivation, I think asking students to do that alone outside of class is not only asking too much, but it is also not making the most of an opportunity to get students involved in using language in a practical and communicative setting IN the classroom.

If done right, I think this sort of activity could be a very good way to get students taking about something they are actually interested in talking about.

The instructor would do well to carefully consider the overall proficiency and motivation level of the class, so as to adapt the activity appropriately in terms of length of time, which topics to debate, the size of the groups, and the type of debate format chosen, etc.