MANAGING

SOCIAL
INTERACTION
AND
DISCUSSIONS

Developing Interactive skills(1)

expressing/ agreement or disagreement
managing a discussion
debating skills

Expressing/ agreement or
disagreement
Agreement

Disagreement

Complete agreement

Direct Disagreement

I totally agree with you,

I see your point,
Thats true/ right,
Yes, I agree with you,

I beg to differ,
I disagree,
I dont agree,
I dont think so,

Partial agreement

Indirect Disagreement

I agree with you to a certain

point,
You could be right,
That may be so but
It sounds good. However,

Are you sure?

I could be wrong but..
Oh., I dont know..

Managing a discussion
a session where a few people sit and
exchange views and opinions on a
certain issue;
a chairperson is normally appointed to
ensure the smoothness of the
discussion and make sure the
discussion is not out of order;

Convention of a discussion

Greeting
Thanking people for coming
Starting the discussion
Introducing the subject or topic or problem
Inviting and encouraging people to speak (turntaking)
Making sure every one has the fair opportunities
to speak (interrupting)
Summarising the main points
Concluding the discussion

Discussion skills

Greeting
Inviting and turn-taking
interrupting
Expressing approval/disapproval
Making suggestions/ recommendations
Stating and justifying opinions
Giving opinions for action taken
Giving opinions
Persuading
Making conclusions

Giving explanation
in giving explanation, the language should be
clear and concise;
explanation can be done by:
1.
2.
3.
4.

showing connections
giving examples
comparing
providing feedbacks and corrections

Asking questions
we ask questions to get extra information;
ways of asking questions:
a. wh-questions
b. polite requests
c. yes/no questions
d. question tags

Accepting/ rejecting answers

when we accept or reject an answer, there
are varying degrees of acceptance and
rejections:

agree strongly (I agree with you )

half agree (Yes, I quite agree)
disagree politely (I am not so sure)
disagree politely (I really cant agree)

Giving encouragement and

advice
giving encouragement
encouragement will give them hope to push
despite the little achievement they have made;
there are three situations when we need
encouragement (successful, in doubt and fail)

giving advice
advice is given when there is a problem or to
guide students for improvement;

Developing Interactive Skills (2):

it is necessary for us to be good in inviting
opinions from others to keep the interaction
going;
we also have to know how to give our
opinions properly without making others feel
as if we are imposing our opinions on them;

11

Asking for and giving opinions:

Function

Expression

asking for opinion Whats your opinion on

What do you think of
What are your views on
How do you feel about
Would you mind sharing your opinion on
giving opinion

I believe
Im certain
I must say
Its quite clear that
I would like to say that
I guess
I suppose
12

Function

seeking
clarification

Expression

Would you mind explaining to me

Im sorry but I need further explanation on
Forgive me for asking but I dont quite understand

I beg your pardon, could you please repeat what

13

Developing Interactive Skills (3):

making requests:
- request and ask for a favour from someone needs
careful thoughts and done in a polite manner;

interrupting:
- a skill to use when you have something important
say but not given the way in by the other
speakers;
- It indicates whether we agree or disagree with
others;

to

14

 turn-taking:
- occurs during a formal situation (dialogue, meeting,
forum) between people who do not know each other
very well discussing a serious issue;
- it involves one person inviting another to speak his
views and opinions;
- this is to gives every one a chance to express his/her
views and to avoid some people dominating the
conversation;

15