Abstract
Many students can do shopping in English, but how many of them can discuss in English? When people from different countries try to solve conflicts or collaborate in joint projects, how many of Japanese students will be able to join the discussion? Obviously, the age has come when ordinary Japanese must negotiate with foreigners, whether at home or abroad. In spite of its importance, teaching English discussion has been considered almost impossible in Japanese senior high schools, mainly because of the following reasons : (a) Content limitation : "Students don't have much content to discuss, therefore cannot even discuss in their native language." (b) Linguistic limitation : "Students cannot even introduce themselves in English. How can they discuss in English?" The purpose of this paper is to propose remedies for these two limitations. The proposed remedies have been tested with satisfactory results in the actual classrooms, even toward students of lower proficiency. This article deals with how to generate student's discussion in high school English. Here "discussion" is defined as "consideration of a question in open usu. informal debate : argument for the sake of arriving at truth or clearing up difficulties." (Webster) Discussion ability is considered one of the most important goals of foreign language education because of the following reasons : (1) As the modern world becomes increasingly complex and internationalized, more and more importance is placed on discussion and negotiation for solving conflicts or getting over differences. If people wish to gain respect in international societies, they need to be able to contribute in discussions. (2) A time has arrived when ordinary Japanese must negotiate with foreigners whether in Japanese or in other languages. "Negotiating" will be one of the major functions of language teaching here in the near future. (3) Students should not delay practicing real use of the target language until they have "mastered" the language, othewise most students will never have a chance of using the language.
