A debate itself can be used as the driving force for learner-generated integrated skills classes, rather than a speaking activity tagged onto the end of a separate reading, writing and listening portion on the topic.
A few possible ways may include:
- WRITING: small groups can create ‘for’ and ‘against’ statements about the topic.Use these initial statements to identify gaps in lexical knowledge you choose to focus on (e.g. topical vocabulary, grammatical structure, functional language, etc.). Later, different small groups can respond to these statements using this learned lexis.
- READING: small groups proofread other groups’ statements for accuracy. Then, when all statements are created, collect them all. Have groups organize them into categories (e.g. connect ‘for’ statements with contrasting ‘against’ statements in terms of content).
- SPEAKING: when in groups, learners negotiate meaning with each other when creating statements and categorising them. Additionally, the oral debate itself is inherently speaking practice, where learners can rotate being main speaker and can use the learned lexis, practise pronunciation and utilise learned discourse markers for discussion, etc.
- LISTENING: learners listen to each other’s ideas when completing the first two tasks on this list. Also, when oral debate is actually happening, give group members the task of identifying a statement’s content. They must then look for a response statement from their generated list to give to the main speaker for rebuttal.
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