ESL Small Group Discussion: One Tip to Make it Awesome

Do you have discussions in English in your ESL or EFL classes? Then you’ll need to check out this top tip or making them even better.

Keep on reading to find out more about giving students thinking time before having a discussion!

Discussion Starter Questions 

In the ESL textbook, Smart Choice: Level 2, there are some small group discussion starters in one of the chapters. The 4 questions are:

Have you ever met or seen a famous person?
Have you ever been in an accident?
What’s your most embarrassing moment?
Have you ever experienced a natural disaster?

(As an aside, the Smart Choice series is a good choice if you’re looking for a simple, 4-skills book for beginner level students. Click on the picture below to buy it now on Amazon).

Of course, there are discussion starter questions like this in just about every single ESL Textbook! This is just one example, so please adapt this idea to suit your needs.

ESL Small Group Discussion: The One Tip You Need

The key to having better results with this kind of activity is to give some thinking time! This is particularly true with beginner to low-intermediate students.

More advanced students will be able to speak more “off the cuff” and may actually think it’s kind of strange if you give them time to think about their answers for simple questions like this.

My best advice is to use your discretion. You know the level of your students and whether or not they would benefit from a minute or two to collect their thoughts before speaking.

How Much Time? 2-3 Minutes Usually is a Good Rule of Thumb

In this particular case, 2-3 minutes of thinking time works well. That way, students can have a solid story that they want to tell for each question. If you put students on the spot, they’re forced to not only think of a story, but worry about what they’re going to say in English as well.

This two or three minutes for thinking can be used in a lot of cases, especially with beginner-level students. I’ve found that the quality of answers are considerably better when I do this and the students aren’t so reluctant to speak out in class.

Thinking Time Makes for Better Follow-Up Questions Too

It also makes it easier to ask follow-up questions since the initial utterance is likely to be something of substance instead of just random things put together in no coherent order.

The other students in the class will be able to understand each other’s answers in a more meaningful way if you allow for thinking time.

Should Students Write out Their Answers?

Even though I give students thinking time, I make a point to tell them NOT to write out full sentences. This turns the activity from a speaking one into a writing one.

Instead, they can only write themselves a few notes on a piece of paper. Before turning my students loose to do their thing, I give them this example for the question about the embarrassing moment:

• Shopping mall
• Old Navy
• Many people
• Glass window
• Run away!

Can you picture the story? When I tell the story, I add in all the details and speak in sentences. However, when students write the story out, it becomes a writing exercise and not a speaking one.

Put Yourself in the Student’s Shoes

I know that if someone asked me to tell a story in Korean, I could maybe do it but not when put on the spot. In fact, I’d be really terrible and would get all flustered and stressed out. If I had a few minutes to look up a word or two in the dictionary and organize my thoughts in my head, it might be possible.

Try it Out Yourself

Give students some thinking time before they have to speak. But, encourage them just to think in their heads and not write out full sentences because it then becomes a writing activity instead of a speaking one.

Need More Ideas for Teaching English?

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Learn More About Student-Centered Language Teaching

This activity is student centered in a serious way. It’s all about the students working out the language for themselves, instead of relying too heavily on the teacher. You can learn more about this style of language teaching here:

Have your Say about this Tip for ESL Small Group Discussion!

Do you have a tip or trick to make English discussions go more smoothly? Or, what did you think about tip regarding thinking time? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Of yeah, and don’t forget to share this tip on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. It’ll help other English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Last update on 2019-09-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API