Part One: Warm Up
Discuss the following questions with your partner(s).
- How acceptable is it to discuss your opinions honestly and disagree with others in your culture? Why do you think that is?
- How easy or difficult do you find discussing your opinions with others in English? What are some of the challenges of doing this for you?
Part Two: Getting Ready to Speak
In English 125, you learned many expressions that are useful when discussing your opinions with a group. In this lesson, you are going to review some of these expressions and then use them to discuss your opinions with a small group.
Open the exercise and follow the instructions.
Exercise
Part Three: Your Turn
Work in a small group of three to four people to discuss each of the statements below, which are based on topics you've explored in this unit. Make sure that you use expressions from this lesson to give your opinions, agree and disagree, ask others for their opinions, clarify, challenge opinions, and give everyone a chance to speak.
- Dealing with conflict directly is the best way to resolve it.
- When I have a problem, it’s easier for me to talk to a friend than to a family member.
- When trying to improve communication with others, learning how to listen should be as important as learning how to speak.
- Problems with friends are more difficult to resolve than those with siblings.
- Expressing a problem I have with somebody in writing and then sharing it with that person makes it easier to discuss the problem later.
- Friendships between people of the same gender are closer.
- If faced with rejection, it’s important to remain positive.