The most important part is choosing a topic that interests your students. The choice is endless: from fashion, relationships, work, to contemporary issues like global warming, plastic waste, low fertility, artificial intelligence, social media, but it must be relevant to the specific group of students you are working with. Otherwise, they won¡¯t be motivated to talk about it.
To get this right, it¡¯s a good idea to give them a list of topics to choose from. Topics like friends, relationships and marriage tend to be popular regardless of the students¡¯ level of English. I¡¯ve had students pick one that I didn¡¯t expect, which reminded me that teachers¡¯ intuition as to what interests students isn¡¯t always right. We need to maintain some control and make sure that there is a good mix of light and serious topics, depending on level. For example, I always include controversial ones like ¡°capital punishment¡± in the list of recommended topics for intermediate and higher levels.
2. Present an unusual viewpoint
Giving students an engaging topic isn¡¯t enough to get them talking. We sometimes need to introduce it with an unusual, unexpected viewpoint that the students can¡¯t help commenting on. One typical example is with ¡°learning English¡±. If you present it with a matter-of-fact viewpoint such as ¡°It¡¯s important for us to learn English,¡± asking students to say yay or nay, there¡¯s little further discussion. But an unorthodox view like ¡°You don¡¯t need to learn English¡± may trigger thoughts like ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not true!¡± or ¡°Wait, that might be actually right,¡± making students want to say something.
Let¡¯s take another example, ¡°marriage.¡± If you start with a question like ¡°What do you think of marriage?¡± students wouldn¡¯t know what to say. We need to provide an impactful statement or question that elicits reactions. What if you said, ¡°Marriage is not at all a necessity in life,¡± and invited students to take a stand? You will immediately get various reactions: ¡°Of course not, it¡¯s your own choice,¡± ¡°I personally think getting married is an essential part of life,¡± or ¡°But the less often people get married, the more birth rate will suffer.¡±
This approach pushes students to recognize their own feelings about the topic or reinforce their own standpoints, then speak up. Also, hearing others¡¯ opinions sets a base from which to agree or disagree, which could even influence their own opinions or feelings afterwards.
In other words, we need to motivate students to produce language output. But for ¡°output¡± to happen, students need some ingredients because without having the right words or expressions ready to come out of their head, they cannot express what they think. Fear of making mistakes also gets in the way of output. What can we do to help them overcome these obstacles?
3. Give students tools to help with speaking
Many Japanese students struggle with fluency, to spontaneously say what they want to say in English. Not being able to find the words that reflect their thoughts is stressful to them and often demotivating. One way to help mitigate this common difficulty is to prepare sample opinions that express different standpoints so that students don¡¯t need to generate their sentences from scratch, making it easier for them to overcome the hurdle of speaking English. Students can start with simply saying they agree or disagree, or pick one that represents their own opinion the most, or combine parts of sample opinions or adding their own words to recreate a complete statement. You might notice that this output activity can serve as an implicit input activity.
If possible, prepare a short dialogue, monologue or article with a unique stance on the topic using simple English. Ideally, the text should contain many phrases and sentences that students can recycle to help express their own opinions. This provides a scaffold that reduces the fear of speaking and enables students to share their thoughts with more ease, focusing on finding out each other¡¯s perspective, making the activity less stressful and more enjoyable.
Also, avoid asking students to volunteer their answers in front of the entire class straightaway. Give them time to work on their own to choose a sample opinion and think for themselves, and then gradually scale up by pairing them up to have a one-to-one conversation before having them share with a bigger group, if appropriate. Reassure them that there are no right or wrong answers and we can all have our own opinions.
Summary
Students will want to say what they think if presented a topic they are interested in with an impactful viewpoint. What you need to do is provide students with tools that make up for the lack of language skills and lower their anxiety so that students can enjoy meaningful communication that matches their intellectual abilities regardless of the level of their English. Topic-based discussions also nurture students¡¯ critical thinking and judgement skills as well as raise their awareness on social issues ¨C so if you haven¡¯t tried this yet, I wholeheartedly recommend you do. With trial and error, you will find your own formula for success and before too long you will have a long list of popular topics.
In my case, the all-time favorite topics are: ¡°Should the man always pay the bill on a date?¡± ¡°Can men and women be ¡®just¡¯ friends?¡± ¡°Is cosmetic surgery good or bad?¡± ¡°Should you marry someone from a different culture?¡± and last semester, they showed great interest in the global issue of plastic waste. What conversation topics will be successful in your classes?
Recommended coursebook
ɫèAV English Journey's "Impact Issues" engages learners with exciting, relevant topics and supports them to express their opinions and develop presentation skills.
