How to Improve the Efficiency of Group Discussion in the English Writing Class

In this paper,we mainly discuss how to improve the efficiency of group discussion in the English writing class.In the English writing class,most teachers take the traditional teaching method-presentation,practice and product.To get a better teaching result,some teachers use the group discussion method.Under the facade of heated group discussion,we ask these questions:Does the group discussion really work? How can we improve its efficiency? We hope to find some ways to maximize the efficiency of group discussion in the English writing class and get a better result in English writing.

Exploration on college students＇ reluctance to participate in group discussion in EFL listening and speaking classes

Motivation has long been argued and studied both at home and abroad; however most researches stressed the linear, casual relationship between motivation and students achievement through interaction of group discussion. This paper tended to explore the factors that influenced students＇ motivation to participate in group discussion in EFL listening and speaking class. A questionnaire was designed and adopted to figure out the factors By analyzing the data, this paper would provide some suggestions to the research problem.

Study of group discussion in EFL classroom teaching

Communicative Language Teaching （CLT） lays emphasis on communication in the classroom, pair and group activities and student involvement in the learning process. Amid the classroom activities, group discussion predominates in almost all EFL classroom teaching, characterized by maximized participation of language learners. Several elements contribute to a fruitful group discussion, namely, grouping, topic selection, process control and outcome presentation. The interdependence and interaction of all the elements help to build up a productive group discussion and finalize with novice ideas. In spite of all the advantages, some constraints on group discussion still deserve our attention.

The Essence of Group Discussions

Group discussions are very important in oral English classes. It maximizes students＇ speaking time in a specified-time period. Group discussions have a strong positive effect on the atmosphere in the classroom and the behaviors of the students as they can get more ideas from their friends, and sometimes students don＇t even understand the topic for discussion but by interacting with others they can understand the topic. Particularly it is a good warm-up in conversational classes. The most important reason for using group discussions before speaking tasks is to reduce students＇ nervousness of making mistakes. And this encourages students to be more active in speaking class.

INTRODUCTION OF IRE DISCOURSE PATTERN TO GROUP DISCUSSIONS

This paper presents a new approach of conducting group discussions in oral communication classes by teaching students to follow the IRE (Initiation-Reply-Evaluation) discourse pattern and speak like a teacher. This approach emphasizes the use of specific conversational skills to accomplish the process of meaning negotiation in discussions and has obtained satisfactory classroom results.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND EFL WRITING

Although a limited number of studies have been undertaken to support the argument that group discussion facilitates EFL writing, few studies have provided statistical proof for this. The present study was designed to compare the written work of two groups of Chinese students, in order to identify the differences in writing outcomes achieved with different teaching methods: conducting group discussions with the Experimental Group (EG) and teacher-dominance with the Control Group (CG). By comparing the two groups' written products and analyzing the sample writings and questionnaire results, the study suggests that group discussion facilitates students' writing better than traditional classes, in terms of content, readership and thinking patterns. [HJ][WTH3]

Risks and Influences of Climate Hazards for Agro-Pastoral Development and Strategies Adopted by Agro-Pastoralist Communities in the Bougouni District, Mali

In the southwest of Mali, pastoral resources play an important role in the production and reproduction of livestock. These pastoral resources are very sensitive to climatic hazards and negatively affected their availability in quantity and quality. The main objective of this study was to analyze the risks and influences of climate hazards on pastoral resources and the strategies taken by agropastoralists to cope with them. To achieve this objective, meteorological data trends from 1950 to 2022 were analyzed. The socio-economic data were collected through a semi-structured survey administered to 404 head households, from focus groups through discussion with local stakeholders by using climatic risks matrix. The results obtained indicate a concordance between agropastoralists perception on climate change and meteorological observations concerning the decrease of rainfall (−213 mm;63.3%), the increase of maximum and minimum temperature (+1.33˚C, +1.24˚C;93.1%), and the increase of wind speed (+0.59 m/s;97%) over the past 70 years. Respondents noted a deterioration in the conditions of pastoral resources due to climatic hazards compared to the last 40 years (44.8% for watering points;23.5% for pastures;63.1% for salty lands). Agro pastoralists have adopted measures that allow them to be resilient. These include the collection and storage of crop residues (49.5%), regular watering of animals (39.6%), changing of animals rhythms driving (35.9%), protection of pruning species (31.7%), and concerted reforestation (37.9%). Climatic risk-related hazards constitute a real threat to pastorals resources in the district of Bougouni.

MOOC/SPOC Blended Teaching Practice on Software Engineering Using“Integration of Physical Classroom,Online Classroom and Practical Classroom”

With the vigorous development of MOOC and SPOC,software engineering teachers are exploring how to use first-class online resources to reconstruct the software engineering teaching system.This study proposed a project-driven group discussion classroom teaching reform,which is characterized by“the trinity integration of physical classroom,online classroom,and practical classroom”.The reform employs heuristic and case-based teaching methods,in which,the curriculum is supplemented by smart teaching tools and takes discussion teaching as the core.The teaching process emphasizes the accumulation of multi-stage study results and adopts smart teaching method innovation.In this study,we also build practical classrooms with top software companies.We encourage students to participate in the classroom and take the initiative to practice through“discussion groups”“enterprise practice”,and“cloud training”,which improves learning effectiveness and enhances the ability to analyze problems,design systems,and innovate in actual software projects.

A Frame Work of Multistage Decision Making

This research has objective to analyze some tools which are used to support decision maker to make a decision in multi stage and systematic way. And also in making decision, there are a qualitative type and quantitative type. In order to get an optimum decision making, the decision maker needs systematic way. There is the frame work which is based on combination of some existing methods and challenges emerging in organizational activities, including social organizations as well as business organisations. To formulate the framework, this research conducted focus group discussion consisting of some organizational managers as participants. There are five components of proposed frame work： （1） Criteria Identification through Focus Group Discussion （FGD）; （2） Criteria Selection; （3） Focus Group for Criteria Verification; （4） Multicriteria Decision Making based Analytic Hierarchy Process （AHP）; and （5） Impact Analysis. This research resulted in an effective approach of decision making which allows decision maker to have objective and rational reason in each step of its decision-making process. Strength of the proposed framework is to provide rational and objective approach in group decision making. However, it takes longer time to conduct decision making due to more steps and participants involved. As a conclusion, the proposed research has been successful in establishing a multi stage and rational decision-making process.

Lack of Consensus and Dense Content in Informational Letters on Benign Gynecological Surgery

Objective: This study maps the contents of departmental informational letters and explores whether the national GynOp letters live up to the patients’ expectations and needs. Introduction: Patients who are well informed before undergoing surgery experience reduced stress and increased understanding of the postoperative process. Although providing patients with written information before gynecological surgery is widely used and assumed important, no study has investigated what information patients truly need. Methods: In 2014, all 59 gynecological departments in Sweden were asked to provide the information letter they send to patients before hysterectomy on benign indication. 32 letters were analyzed using frequency analysis. In addition, three focus groups were conducted and these data were submitted to Qualitative Content Analysis. Results: The analysis of the information letters showed great variation and discrepancy in pre-operative information. The analysis of the focus groups resulted in the theme You can’t see the forest for the trees, reflecting that, the women found it very difficult to identify the most important information among the massive amount information received. Conclusions: The informational letters did not meet the patients’ expectations and needs. Practice implications: This study could serve as a foundation for the content of informational letters.

Study on Seminar Teaching Method for Forestry and Agricultural Mechanical Undergraduate Students

For training forestry and agricultural mechanical undergraduate students’ innovation ability,the article studied seminar teaching method. It could improve the comprehensive quality of students,renew the teaching idea of education,train high quality talents for the society. The results showed,adequate preparation should be done for the first section,students should be made independent,group discussion time should be distributed reasonably,silent and active students should be controlled effectively.

Pour un accompagnement des familles endeuillées avec un enfant en basâge Supporting Bereaved Families with Young Children

Objective:The violent death of a young parent from cancer has a profound effect on both spouse and children.The family must adapt to the absence of the bereaved and reorganize to raise the children as best they can.Very young children are particularly vulnerable,as they are generally unable to express their suffering.To give them a voice,we have designed an innovative system,The Little Match Girl,as part of a health democracy approach.Methods:We assessed the effects of their participation in the group for a population of eight children and their parents.The six parents assessed their child(ren)’s emotion regulation before and after therapy using the ERC-vf scale.The FACES IV enabled us to assess the cohesion and adaptability of each family.Results:All eight children showed improved emotion regulation.The program promotes family resilience.However,difficulties persist in rigid or disengaged families.Conclusion:We hope that other cancer centers will follow our model to give a place to very young children dealing with the death of a parent from cancer,and to encourage family empowerment.

A Study on Human-Computer Interaction Mechanism in an Intelligent Tutoring System

Discussion is a common and important learning process.Involvement of a virtual agent can provide adaptive support for the discussion process.Argumen-tative knowledge construction is beneficial to learners’acquisition of knowledge,but the effectiveness of argumentative scaffolding in existing studies is not consistent.Based on an intelligent discussion system,a total of 47 undergraduate students took part in the experiment and they were assigned to three different conditions:content-related plus content-independent scaffolding condition,content-related scaffolding condition,and the control condition.Under the content-related and content-independent scaffolding condition,the computer agent provided an idea from semantically different categories(content-related scaffolding)according to the automatic categorization of the current contributions,and further inquired the participants about their attitudes and reasons(content-independent scaffolding).Under the condition of content-related scaffolding condition,the virtual agent only provided semantically different viewpoints.Under the control condition,the subjects expressed their opinion independently without the participation of the virtual agent.Findings revealed that compared with the control group,when the virtual agent provided semantically different ideas(content-related scaffolding),the discussion breadth(number of categories)was improved and the subjects felt that they had a more comprehensive understanding of the problem.Compared with the content-related scaffolding condition,when the virtual agent provided semantically different ideas and further asked about the attitudes and reasons,the subjects expressed more agreement with these views,but mentioned fewer categories during the discussion.This study suggests that the content-related scaffolding can facilitate the cognitive processing effect relevant to the topic of discussion.When the content independent scaffolding is added,it can promote the argumentative processing,but may have a negative effect on the cognitive processing related to the topic discussed.