Teaching Tips

Debates (discussion) allow forming the conscious attitude to consideration of problems, activity in its discussion, speech culture, an orientation on revealing of the reasons of arising problems and installation on their decision further. Here the principle of formation of critical thinking is realized. Language, thus, is simultaneously both the purpose and means of teaching. The technique of debates helps pupils not only to seize all four kinds of speech activity, but to bring a language situation on a background of a problem of social and cultural sphere, to find out the reasons of the arisen situations and try to solve them. Interest to the independent decision of a problem is the stimulus, driving force of process of knowledge [40; 59].
Thus, application of discussion allows making active cognitive activity of pupils, their independence, forms culture of creative operative thinking, creates conditions for use of personal life experience and received before knowledge for mastering new. As discussion and the decision of problems occurs during controlled group dialogue at participants skill to operate in interests of group is developed, there is an interested respect for interlocutors and conducts to formation of collective. Application of this method in aggregate with a method of projects allows generating thinking and owning not only the English language, but also the expert understanding in various problems, capable to be guided in quickly varying information streams.
There are pros and cons of group discussion:

• 
  group discussions provide for greater interaction between students,
  
• 
  instructors maintain a greater control over what is being taught because they are able to steer the discussion.
  
• 
  auditory learners find them appealing to their learning style,
  
• 
  teachers can check on what students are retaining through questions posed,
  
• 
  group discussion is comfortable for many teachers because it is a modified form of lecture,
  
• 
  students have a tendency to stay focused on the lesson because they might be called on to answer questions,
  
• 
  students may feel more comfortable asking questions during group discussions.
  

But:

• 
  group discussions require setting up and enforcing ground rules for students. If these rules are not enforced then there is a possibility that the discussion could quickly go off-topic.
  
• 
  students who are weak in note-taking skills will have trouble understanding what they should remember from group discussions. This is even more so than in lectures in many cases because not only the teacher but fellow students are talking about the lesson,
  
• 
  some students may not feel comfortable being put on the spot during a whole group discussion.
  

Thus, group discussions are an excellent teaching method when used in conjunction with other methods. Instruction should be varied from day to day to help reach the most students possible. Teachers need to provide their students with note taking skills before starting discussions. It is important that teachers be good at managing and facilitating discussions. Questioning techniques are effective for this. Two questioning techniques that teachers employ is to increase their wait time after questions are asked and to only ask one question at a time.
Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that collaborative games are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value in communicative teaching. W. R. Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms. He also says that games should be treated as central not peripheral to the foreign language teaching programme [41; 43]. A similar opinion is expressed by Richard Amato, who believes games to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching [42; 26].
In interactive teaching collaborative games are used. They are aimed to developing communicative abilities, fluency in speaking, creative mind.
There are many advantages of using games. They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings. They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Furthermore, to quote Richard Amato, they, "add diversion to the regular classroom activities," break the ice, " [but also] they are used to introduce new ideas”. [19, c.56]. In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better. Further support comes from A. Zdybiewska, who believes games to be a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future [43; 48].
Collaborative games encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems.