A PYRAMID DISCUSSION LESSON PLAN

Number of students: 40 

Class Time: 90 minutes
Relevant course: DUE 1012/ M.U.E.T/ Any Speaking Course

Learning outcome

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Participate in a discussion using exponents of language functions such as giving an opinion, justifying / explaining, disagreeing, expressing reservations, agreeing and turn taking.

Prior Knowledge

Students have been taught the following language functions and their exponents:

Language Function	Exponent
Giving an opinion	I believe / think that … In my opinion, … My view is that …
Justifying / Explaining	This is because … The main reason for this is …
Expressing Reservations	You have a point, but … I can understand where you are coming from, but …
Disagreeing	I’m afraid I have to disagree. I’m sorry but I disagree.
Agree	I agree with you. I agree with what Lee said. John made a very good point and I agree with him.
Turn Taking	What about you? What do you think?

Activity

Pre-discussion

Students sit in pairs and are given a topic to talk about. They are given 3 minutes to prepare 3 main points.

Pair 1

Student A – The most important invention is the smart phone Student B – The most important invention is the computer

Pair 2

Student C – The most important invention is the smart phone Student D – The most important invention is the computer

Pair 3

Student E – The most important invention is the Internet Student F – The most important invention is the television

Pair 4

Student G – The most important invention is the Internet Student H – The most important invention is the television

*Note: There are 4 pairs here, making a group of 8 students. For a class of 40, there will be 5 groups of 8.

The Discussion – Building the Pyramid

Step 1 – 5 minutes

Student A begins by stating his / her case, giving ONE reason to support it. Student B will express reservation / disagree with Student A and state his / her case and give ONE reason to support it. This is repeated until both have presented all three points they prepared earlier. Students are encouraged to use different expressions of disagreement.

Step 2 – 10 minutes

Students then get into groups of 4. This time each student will present their stand with all three reasons. Any one of the students may begin. They will take turns to present. On hearing a student with a different view point they will disagree, stating their own view with reasons. They will agree if they hear someone with the same opinion, stating why they agree. In Step 2, they need to do turn taking.

Step 3 – 20 minutes

Students get into groups of 8. As with step 2, any one of the students may begin. They will take turns to present their view, disagreeing or agreeing with one another. After every student has presented his / her view, the whole group will discuss and decide on which of the 4 gadgets is the most important invention. In the final stage of the discussion, the students can maintain or change their stand.

Step 4 – 20 minutes (2 minutes per person, 8 groups)

Each group elects a member to present their choice of gadget to the whole class.

Step 5 – 15 minutes

Reflection by students and feedback from teacher.

Why Pyramid Discussion

• Provides more opportunity for students to practise speaking through repetition of their views
• Allows students to reinforce the learning of language functions and their exponents
• Suitable for large classes – if there are 40 students, there’ll be 5 groups of 8 at the end
• Differentiation – Weaker students gain confidence through repetition of their views and language exponents; Students with better proficiency summarize and present their group’s decision to the whole class (Step 4)

For further reading:

What is a pyramid discussion?

Pyramid Discussion: Discussion in a Large Class

Prepared by:

Tan Sui Chee

Politeknik Ungku Omar