Exercise on Group Discussion Skills

A. Structure of a group discussion

In a good group discussion, there should be

______________ parts: an introduction,

a ___________ and a _____________. The

approximate allocation of time is 1 minute,

_______ minutes and _________ minutes

respectively.

3

body conclusion

7 2

Discussion skills that candidates can display at different times of the discussion are as follows:

Starting the discussion• Introducing the topic• Suggesting a framework

During the discussion • Asking for opinions• Making suggestions• Summarizing and moving on• Agreeing and disagreeing• Responding with a reason / an example

During the discussion (continued)

• Interrupting• Clarifying• Assisting weaker candidates

Closing the discussion

• Summing up• Assigning responsibilities

B. Group discussion skills

Candidates are expected to display a wide range of discussion skills in the 10-minute discussion. Complete the following formula and give an example for each item. For each skill, the first letter is given as hint.

1. Asking for opinions e.g. What do you think?

2. M _______________ e.g. __________________

3. P _______________ e.g. __________________

4. M _______________ e.g. __________________

5. S _______________ e.g. __________________

aking suggestions I think……

assing turns Is this a good idea, Miss Chan?

oving on Shall we move on to discuss…?

ummarising So far, we’ve discussed…

6. A _______________ e.g. ________________

7. R _______________ e.g. ________________

8. C _______________ e.g. ________________

9. I _______________ e.g. ________________

10. A _______________ e.g. ________________

greeing and disagreeing

- I agree with you that …because

- I’m afraid I can’t agree with you

because….

esponding

larifying

nterrupting

ssisting weaker candidates

What you’ve said is true but

have you ever thought about…

What I mean is….

Sorry to interrupt, but…

What’s your idea, Mr Wong?

Do you agree with our ideas?

C. Based on 2003 Set 14 ‘Pets: Man’s best friend’, write out your ideas using the following sentence structures

1. Shall we ______? Today we need to ___

________________________________

________________________________

2. I think we should include ____________

___________ in our booklet because __

________________________________.

start

plan a booklet entitled ‘Pets: man’s best friends’.

the vaccination

procedures

pet owners need to know about this

3. In addition to ____________________, ________________________ can be included because _________________ ________________________________

4. How can we gather information for the booklet? I think___________________

________________________________

5. How about presenting the information in an interesting way? In order to make the booklet interesting, we can __________ ________________________________

vaccination procedures

the advs and disadvs of keeping pets

they are good considerations

for potential pet owners.

we can surf the Internet

to get first-hand information.

add colourful

photos and make the booklet pocket-sized.

6. So far, we’ve discussed_____________

____________________________________ .

Shall we move on to discuss _____________ ?

7. Who should be our target readers? I

think ________________________________

because _____________________________

8. As time is running short, let’s make a conclusion. We’ve planned how to _________

______________________________________

the information

to be included and how to gather information.

the target readers

we should target children and the elderly

they often need a pet to accompany them

booklet. Shall we assign the responsibilities now?

make the