LUTHFI GHAISANI

17018014

ACADEMIC WRITING

CRITICAL REVIEW ESSAY

Task: Write a critical review of Dr. D. Nagarathinam & Prof. L.

Lakshmanan’s Article: The Importance of Group Discussion and the
Role of Participants

Review: Lakshmanan, L & D. Nagarathinam. (2016). The

Importance of Group Discussion and the Role of Participants.
http://www.languageinindia.com

Group is collection of individuals who work together to achieve

the certain goals. Discussion is the proess of exchanging information
and idea about certain topic to achieve the goals. “Group Discussion”
or commonly called as GD are usually used by an institution to decide
wheater the candidates has certain personality traits. Group discussion
refers to communicative situation that allows the candidates share
their view and opinions with other candidates.
 Rahyubi (2012: 235) defines that discussion method is a
teaching method that is very closely related to problem solving. This
method commonly refers to ‘group discussion’ and ‘socialized
recitation’. In group discussion, the students will interact and discuss
with others to construct the new knowledge, ask and answer for some
questions, then make the framework of what they do not know, and
then try to solve the problems together. It will help them to understand
some materials quickly than working alone.

A group discussion is a very important round in any selection

process such as work recruitment, campus recruitment, course, etc..
Lakshmanan and Nagarathinam in their article: The Importance of
Group Discussion and The Role of Participant will explain it for more
information.

In their article, the authors explain that GD has been applied in

many institution suh as IIMs(Indian Institute of Management), but
also by other top B-schools — FMS, IIFT, IMT-Ghaziabad,MDI-
Gurgaon, S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, TAPMI
and K.J.Somaiya Institute of Management. These institutions is
implemented as the one of the main processes of selecting the
candidates by concidering some skills; Communication Skills,
Interpersonal Skills, Leadership Skills, Motivational Skills, Team
Building Skills, Tolerance to Ambiguity, Listening skills, Presentation
Skills, Analytical / Logical skills.
 According to the authors, there are some Dos and don’ts that
have to be concidered in doing group discussion such as : Keeping eye
contact while speaking, allowing others to speak, speaking clearly,
making sure to bring the discussion on track, listening carefully to
others, do not interrupt in the middle, and do not take the discussion
personally.

Another major concern of the authors is the participants’ role in

group discussion. It means that the author do not just talking about the
way how to do a great group discussion itself but also the participants
that belongs to the process of a group discussion. the participants’ role
can be make sense for them in marking their score or points in the
particular manner. There are some roles that the participants can
choose;

1. The Initiator: the one who initiates the GD that has good
knowledge and fully understand about the topic.
2. The Data Giver: the one who provides all the statistics and data
relevant to the discussion
3. The Criticiser: the one who contradicts or criticizes the points
that others make.
4. The Supporter: the one who suppots the points that others make.
5. The Questioner: the one who plays the role to ask question
6. The Traffic Policeman: the one who tries to control the flow of
other partiipants.
7. The Spectator or Audience: the one who does not have any
contributions.
 8. The Leader: the one who may try and lay the framework or
boundaries of the discussion. ( this is the role that the
participants should try and play)
9. The Summarizer: the one who try to sum up the discussion at
the end.

The authors also do some evaluation with some parameters:

1. Content - Subject Knowledge (Participants’ knowledge about

topics)
2. Creativity and Originality (do not copying or do plagiarism)
3. Voice – Tone and Pitch ( make clear about what you said)
4. Body Language- Posture and Eye Contact
5. Analytical Ability (critical thinking)
6. Fluency
7. Initiative
8. Leadership
9. Group Behavior
10.Enthusiasm
11.Listening

In summary, while Lakshmanan and Nagarathinam’s article- at

least the extract I read- is an interesting topic where we can see the
way to do it and how we can give judgment of a great group
discussion.
References

Rahyubi,Heri. (2012). Teori-Teori Bjelajar dan Aplikasi Pembelajaran

Motorik. Majalengka. Nusa Media.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://lang
uageinindia.com/april2016/lakshmanangroupdiscussion.pdf&ved=2ah
UKEwjYkvbSqdLhAhWj7X MBHXNDA-
sQFjALegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw0_95ECAN8mie_x9EpdJF8Y
(Retrieved: April 14th, 2019)