Introduction to Academic

Discussions
 Objectives
• Understand what academic discussion are and
how they work
• Understand your role and interact effectively
with others in a discussion
• Understand the importance of being an active
participant in discussions and have strategies to
achieve this.
• Use appropriate language in the context of an
academic discussion
 Academic Discussions
• This course aims to prepare you for academic
discussion work next year
• An academic discussion
– is a ‘controlled’ class discussion
– may be an integral part of your BA/MA/PhD next year

• Academic discussions are useful because they can

help you develop practical academic and linguistic
skills
 Challenges
• DISCUSSIONS require you to
– exercise your research skills
– use critical thinking skills
– build logical and convincing arguments
– improve your spontaneous speaking skills
– think on your feet
 Aims
• Today we will
– focus on appropriate language
– have a class discussion
– consider what it means to ‘actively participate’ in
discussion classes
– consider what we can do outside of class to
improve our speaking skills
 Decision

Two people must jump out in order to save the

rest of the passengers!!
The passengers: A journalist
The passengers: A doctor
The passengers: A mechanic
The passengers: A politician
 Task
• get in groups of 3-4
• each of you is a different character: the nun,
the journalist etc.
• from your new perspective explain why you
believe you shouldn’t (or even should) be the
person to jump out of the balloon
• each person gets the chance to speak for 1-2
minutes
 Next
• you are yourself again – not your character
• as a group discuss which 2 of the passengers you feel
should be sacrificed to save the three other
passengers
• give as many good reasons as you can to support your
arguments
– why should the two passengers die?
– why should the other three passengers be saved?
• use the agreement / disagreement language we
learnt earlier
 Consensus
• As a group you must reach a consensus (a
group decision) and feedback your ideas to
the class:
– which two passengers must go?
– which two can stay?
– give good reasons to support why you’ve made
these decisions?
 Participation
• how well did you participate in this activity?
• were you engaged and focused on it, or would
you rather have been somewhere else doing
something else?
• could you have done / said / argued more?
• did you encourage others to participate?
• what could you do in future to participate
more?