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Tips For Making Online Discussions Productive.

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It has become part of the new normal for teachers to deliver their lessons online via videoconferencing tools. This process of transition has required enormous adaptation, and even after many months, still poses problems for many teachers. One of the biggest problems teachers face relates to their ability to get their students speaking.

Speaking, as with writing, are the skills that demonstrate that we have achieved our goals, that our students have learnt what we have been teaching, and therefore, are able to produce English in their appropriate level of proficiency..

There are a number of rules I recommend at various stages of online discussion sessions.

ESTABLISH RULES FOR THE DISCUSSION.

At the beginning of the lesson/activity, the teacher has the responsibility to draw students’ attention to basic rules, such as muting the microphone while others are talking, unmuting the microphone when they need to speak, and avoiding talking over each other. If any of these rules are breached, the teacher should remind the students of their right to speak or listen.

Of equal importance is to choose a student leader for each group, and give them the responsibility to set the agenda or the intended outcomes of the discussion in order to make the discussion purposeful. When students veer off into another direction, the leader should bring them back to the subject matter.

MAKE TIME FOR PREPARATION AND BRAINSTORMING

A discussion session should never start with a discussion. If we start by asking students to express their views on an unfamiliar topic, they will probably not be able to contribute anything of value, since activating an outline discussion depends on prior knowledge. On the other hand, if students are very knowledgeable about a particular topic, it can be tempting for them to bluff their way through without providing substance.

It is therefore vital that we ask students to carry out research and brainstorming before the activity. If this isn’t possible, we should give them time at the beginning of the session, say 5 to 10 minutes, to perform informational searches. This research stage enables students to develop a solid understanding of the topic and ensures a high-quality discussion.

BE THOUGHTFUL AND INTELLIGENT ABOUT GROUP SIZE AND THE ASSIGNMENT OF ROLES

The group size should be small to increase students’ involvement in discussions. If the class size is large, break the team into groups of three or four. Turn-taking will then be rigorous, and passive students will have more opportunities to interact with the other members of their group.

To increase students’ sense of control over their activity and participation, there should be a clear definition of roles in each group, similar to how we carry out cooperative learning in a real classroom. The choice of leader is critical to increasing participation. If it is a mature group, we can of course leave it to the students’ own devices. For junior students, we should pick a very responsive participant to be the leader, since these are the students who are best suited for motivating their fellow students. 

CREATE A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR THE DISCUSSION

Teachers should avoid dominating the discussion. One of the problems that are often overlooked in a language classroom is the amount of time the teacher talks. It’s almost inevitable for very passionate teachers to deliver lengthy monologues in an online session without realizing it. Not only does this significantly reduce students’ participation in lessons and demotivate them, but also it denies students opportunities to practice their speaking and critical-thinking skills.

However, while the student leader is supposed to act as the facilitator, the teacher still has a role to play in the discussion.

The teacher should constantly encourage the leader to invite others to respond once one student participant has finished talking. If several students are of the same opinion but the argument may be logically flawed, the teacher should act as a devil’s advocate and introduce another perspective by asking what-if questions. Never should the teacher explicitly point out the mistake, since this hampers critical-thinking development, nor should the teacher refute students’ arguments directly by expressing their personal views, as they can be easily perceived as authoritative ideas that can’t or shouldn’t be disputed.

It’s also the teacher’s responsibility to ask for clarification when necessary. “Why” questions are especially useful in helping students build their cases and arguments. If the discussion dries up in the middle, the teacher should prompt students with yes-or-no questions, or questions involving another consideration, so that the discussion engine can be switched on again.

All in all, teachers should cultivate a welcoming rule-based, and student-led environment to maximize interactions in online discussion sessions.

I hope that you enjoyed this article, and that it has given you some ideas that you can adapt into your classes.

Good luck and good teaching.

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