【Teaching Practice Report】

Examining the Unit 3 Goals of English Discussion Class
Heather Woodward
Abstract
Commencing Spring 2020, textbook writers of Rikkyo University’s English Discussion Class (EDC) have divided
the course into three units: 1) sharing and supporting opinions, 2) organizing a discussion, and 3) challenging andevaluating ideas. However, EDC students might need more assistance than that offered by Kita et al.’s (2022)“What’s Your Opinion?” to achieve the third unit goal of challenging and evaluating ideas. In the EDC Handbook(2022), there also exists a lack of clarity regarding the relationship between the Unit 3 goals and the Unit 3
discussion skills. In this paper, I review the current textbook’s explanations of the Unit 3 discussion skills, present
alternative explanations, and thereafter, outline potential in-class activities. With these new explanations andactivities, students might gain a better understanding of how to use the third unit’s discussion skills for the purposeof challenging and evaluating ideas.
Keywords: EDC, Objectives, Challenging, Evaluating

Introduction
English discussion class (EDC) is a requirement for all first-year students at Rikkyo University.
The course is designed to improve academic discussion skills, communication skills, and spoken
fluency (Hurling, 2012). EDC textbook writers have divided EDC into three units: a) sharing andsupporting opinions, b) organizing a discussion, and c) challenging and evaluating ideas. These units
are further separated into discussion skills. Table 1 on the next page shows unit goals with discussion
skills and examples.
The first unit goal of sharing and supporting opinions featured in Table 1 has three discussion
skills: opinions, supporting opinions, and follow-up questions. Students demonstrate their competenceof sharing and supporting opinions by asking for and giving opinions, reasons/examples, andfollow-up questions in the discussion. The second unit goal of organizing a discussion has three
discussion skills of connecting ideas, joining a discussion, and changing topics. Students demonstrate
their ability to organize a discussion by using these skills during discussion. The last unit goal ischallenging and evaluating ideas. The discussion skills are different viewpoints, balancing opinions,and sources of information. During the discussion, students show the extent to which they canchallenge and evaluate ideas by using these three skills.
In the following sections, I discuss the problems with not providing definitions and examples forchallenging and evaluating ideas, then examine the current textbook explanations. After, I provide
new explanations with examples to mitigate these problems. Lastly, I present classroom activities thatmight help students gain a better understanding of the terms challenging and evaluating ideas.

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EXAMINING THE UNIT 3 GOALS OF ENGLISH DISCUSSION CLASS

Table 1
Unit Goals With Corresponding Discussion Skills and Examples From Kita et al. (2022)
Unit Goal

Sharing andSupporting Opinions

Organizing a
Discussion

Challenging and
Evaluating Ideas

Lesson No.

Discussion Skill

Examples1

Introduction to English Discussion Class

2

Opinions

In my opinion,… I think…
What do you think?

3

Supporting
Opinions

One reason/example is…
Why do you think so?

4

Follow-up
Questions

What…? Which…? How…?
Do you…? Can you…?

5

Test 1 on Sharing and Supporting Opinions

6

Connecting Ideas

I agree/disagree. You said…
What do you think of my idea?

7

Joining a
Discussion

Can I start? Can I say something?
Would anyone like to ask a question?

8

Changing Topics

What shall we discuss first/next?
Is there anything more to add?
So, we agree/disagree about…

9

Test 2 on Organizing a Discussion

10

Different
Viewpoints

From (X’s) point of view…
How about (X’s) point of view?

11

Balancing Opinions

One advantage/disadvantage of…
What’s one advantage/disadvantage?

12

Sources ofInformation

According to…
I read/heard/saw/learned…
Where did you read/see/hear that?

14

Test 3 on Challenging and Evaluating Ideas

Note. Information from What’s Your Opinion? 2nd Edition (Kita et al., 2022)

Challenging Ideas
Showing the relationship between the discussion skills and the unit goals can make the purpose
and use apparent to students, which facilitates a greater likelihood that students use the skills
appropriately. Without providing such clarity, students might not realize the unit goals. The last unit
goal, challenging and evaluating ideas, comprises the following three discussion skills: different
viewpoints, balancing opinions, and sources of information. Using the unit three discussion skills
does not necessarily equate to fulfilling the goal of challenging ideas because students can use themfor the purpose of supporting their own ideas. In the dialogue below, Aki uses viewpoints to support
her own idea while Ryo uses it to challenge Aki’s idea:• Aki: I agree with you. From the point of view of doctors, they believe that English is importantbecause if there is a tourist who gets injured and doesn’t speak Japanese, then the doctor canstill communicate with him.
• R yo: However, from the point of view of ambulance drivers, English is not so importantbecause paramedics are in the vehicle, and they are required to speak English.
Supporting ideas is important for the process of evaluation but challenging ideas using
viewpoints requires searching for views of people who disagree with each other. Yet only the lowest35

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proficiency students (i.e., Level 4) have “challenging and evaluating ideas” translated in their
textbook.1 The Unit 3 goals have been translated to Takaku-tekina shiten to iken no hyōka (多角的な視点と意見の評価), which means evaluating multifaceted opinions and perspectives. This lack oftranslation or definition of “challenging ideas” for other levels is problematic because highly
proficient students might not be able to give a definition, even in their native language, of what itmeans. In the Collins Dictionary (2022), the writers define “challenging ideas” as questioning “truth,
value, or authority.” Providing a definition with examples to students of all EDC levels would be
advantageous because they can judge for themselves whether they, or their classmates, are using
Unit 3 discussion skills for the purpose of questioning.

Evaluating Ideas
Using Unit 3 discussion skills also does not necessarily equate to fulfilling the goal of evaluatingideas because students can use the discussion skills without weighing or judging the merits of theideas. For example, discussing advantages and disadvantages does not necessarily mean thatstudents are weighing advantages and disadvantages. Likewise, asking for sources of information
during discussion does not mean that students are determining which source is most trustworthy.
The step of students revisiting their initial opinions is necessary because the goal is to reassess
information in light of discussion skill use. The 2022 Handbook does note that students should give
their “opinion + assess” the ideas, but the goal of this paper is to be more specific than the current
textbook and handbook on what assess means in terms of the Unit 3 discussion skills, and when also
students should give their assessment during the discussion.
EDC students might struggle to provide a definition of evaluating on their own, so providing one
can help them gain a better understanding of what they should be doing during the discussion.
Evaluating can be defined as follows:• “…the making of a judgement about the amount, number, or value of something after thinking
about it carefully” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2022)• “…the systematic determination and assessment of a subject’s merit, worth, significance,
using criteria governed by a set of standards” (Wikipedia Contributors, 2022)
The second definition includes the use of criteria as the means by which the evaluation issystematic, and doing so, more clearly differentiates it from simply giving opinions. Kita et al.’s(2022) textbook explanations do not define discussion skills in terms of making a judgment, andtherefore, they do not provide a set of standards by which students can evaluate a belief. They also
do not specify where exactly, within the discussion, students should be revisiting their initial opinions
to make a judgement.
In addition to not defining the terms for Levels 1-3, the textbook writers do not relate the terms
to each other so that students understand their connection. A high-quality evaluation requires thechallenging of the “truth, value, or authority” of different beliefs of the same issue. Therefore, it
might be important for students to know that they are to challenge ideas for the purpose of properly
evaluating them.

1 The translation is on the table of contents section on pages 3-4 of Level 4 textbook (See Kita et al., 2022).

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Textbook Explanations of Unit 3 Discussion Skills
Table 2 shows the textbook explanations of Unit 3’s discussion skills from the EDC textbook,“What’s Your Opinion?” (Kita et al., 2022):
Table 2
Unit 3 Textbook Explanations from Kita et al. (2022)
Goals of Challenging
Discussion Skills
and Evaluating
Different Viewpoints

Balancing Opinions

Textbook Explanations

Asking for Different“…it helps you discuss different opinions on a topic.”
Viewpoints
Giving Different
Viewpoints“…it helps you discuss more than just your own opinions.”

Asking Others toBalance Opinions“…it helps everyone understand different sides of an idea or topic.”

Balancing Your
Opinions“…it helps you talk about the advantages and disadvantages ofdifferent ideas.”

Asking about
Information“…it helps you find out more about other people’s opinions andwhere their information came from.”

Giving Information“…it helps you support your opinions with evidence and facts from
TV, the internet, books, magazines, newspapers, other people, andpersonal experiences.”

Sources of Information

Note. Information from What’s Your Opinion? 2nd Edition (Kita et al., 2022)

These textbook explanations are not so clear insofar as how the discussion skills relate tochallenging and evaluating ideas. For example, the explanation for giving different viewpoints is that“it helps you discuss more than just your own opinions.” Even if students know the definitions ofchallenging and evaluating ideas, this explanation might still be difficult for students to understandhow discussing more than just your own opinions relates to challenging and evaluating ideas. As
there is no further explanation than the one presented in the textbook, students and instructors must
determine for themselves how to use these skills to fulfill the goals of challenge and evaluate ideas.
The textbook writers provide dialogues of the discussion skills to contextualize their use, butthere are no activities to help students identify when discussion skills are being used for the purposeof challenging and for the purpose of evaluating ideas. Explanations in the textbook and the handbook
are also unclear regarding whether all of the Unit 3 discussion skills can be used for both challenging
ideas and evaluating ideas. Therefore, instructors or students must also determine whether each skill
presented in Unit 3 can be used for either challenging or evaluating, or for both. This point isimportant because the meaning of challenging ideas is different from evaluating ideas, and thus, theway that we would use the discussion skills changes. This problem is explained in more detail in thenext section.

New Unit 3 Discussion Skill Explanations
To make the relationship between the discussion skills and the Unit 3 goal clearer than theprevious textbook explanations, Table 3 below shows new explanations with examples for each. They
are as follows:37多言語教育実践ジャーナル

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Table 3
New Discussion Skill Explanations for Unit 3 Goals
Discussion Skills

Challenging ideas

Evaluating ideas

To challenge ideas using viewpoints, ask for or To evaluate ideas using viewpoints, after
give the opinions of people who disagree. discussing the views of people who disagree
Doing so uncovers potential weaknesses of the with each other, decide whose viewpoint is theidea.
most convincing.
Viewpoints

Example: “You said that emergency service
Example: “We discussed five viewpoints, and,workers should speak English, but how about
in my opinion, the most convincing views arefrom an ambulance drivers’ viewpoint? From
from emergency drivers and doctors. They
their point of view, paramedics, who are also inthink that emergency service workers do not
the ambulance, must speak English so learning
need to speak English, so I agree with theirEnglish is not necessary for drivers. What doopinion.”you think about that?”
To challenge ideas using balancing, ask for or To evaluate ideas using balancing, determine
give support for an opposing opinion. Doing so whether the good points outweigh the bad
expresses doubt about the idea.
points or vice versa.

Balancing
Opinions

Example: “You said that all emergency service
workers should speak English. Yet, what is a Example: “We discussed the advantages anddisadvantage of all emergency service workers disadvantages and found two advantages andspeaking English?”three disadvantages. Even though there are
Example: “You said that all emergency service some advantages, the disadvantages are moreworkers should not speak English. However, convincing, so all emergency service workers
one advantage is… What do you think about should speak English.”
that?”To challenge using sources of information, ask
To evaluate using sources of information,
where students have learned about idea.
decide which source is the most trustworthy.
Doing so questions the idea’s truthfulness.

Sources ofInformation

Example: “We discussed the sources of
Example: “You said that all emergency service information and I think that the strongest
workers should speak English, but how do you sources of information are from NHK andknow about that?”
BBC because those news organizations are
more trustworthy than social media.”

In Table 3, I separate challenging ideas from evaluating ideas because the different purposeschange the way that the discussion skills are used. For example, when students use balancing
opinions to challenge ideas, students ask for or give the opposite (e.g., if a student agrees with theidea, then students ask about its disadvantages and vice versa). When students use balancing
opinions for the purpose of evaluation, they first weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Thereafter,
they judge whether overall, there are more convincing advantages for the idea than disadvantages.
The same idea holds true for viewpoints and sources. They are used differently depending on their
purpose. Table 3 might help students understand the meaning of challenging and evaluating morethan Table 2 because Table 3 explicitly connects the use of discussion skill to the unit goals. It also
answers the question whether discussion skills can be used for both challenging ideas and evaluatingideas.
To help students with evaluating ideas, instructors can ask students to use the following
prompts, which are based on the Unit 3 discussion skills, during the summary section of the
discussion:• In my opinion, the most important stakeholders and experts are… and so I agree with them38

EXAMINING THE UNIT 3 GOALS OF ENGLISH DISCUSSION CLASS

that...
• I believe that the advantages/disadvantages of… outweigh its disadvantages/advantages.
• I think that there are more reliable sources of information for the idea than against it.
For example, if students are discussing the idea that all emergency service workers should
speak English, then after they use viewpoints, balance, and sources, they can revisit their initial
opinion at the end of the discussion using the prompts above as a standard by which to evaluate
ideas. One disadvantage of having students openly evaluate at the end of their discussion is thatstudents do not cover as many topics as they do without evaluation because revisiting their initialbeliefs is more time-consuming. Evaluating might also be too cognitively challenging forlow-proficiency students because they must recall what other students have said. Therefore, theymight need to take notes during the discussion and have more scaffolding for the summary section(See Appendix for an example worksheet for Unit 3 discussion). Lastly, the new explanations are
divided into the categories of “challenging” and “evaluating,” and not divided into the categories of“asking for” and “giving” as is the case with Units 1 and 2, so there is a lack of consistency. Instructors
must decide whether the advantages of presenting these new explanations outweigh the disadvantagesof presenting them.

Unit 3 Activities
In this section, I explain activities to help students use viewpoints, sources of information, andbalancing to challenge and evaluate ideas.

Using Viewpoints to Challenge and Evaluate Ideas
On page 34 of the EDC Handbook (2022), writers recommend giving students time to think ofvarious viewpoints before the discussion to decrease their cognitive load. I recommend this activity
for the additional reason that instructors can ensure that students list relevant viewpoints ofstakeholders or experts. If not, students make a mistake of using any viewpoints. They might oftenask, regardless of the topic, “How about from the viewpoint of university students?” The problem
with this is, typically, stakeholders and experts have more convincing views than outsiders orlaypersons, so for the purpose of fulfilling the goal of evaluating ideas, students can spend time
researching ideas of stakeholders and experts during discussion preparation. Another problem isthat if the viewpoint is not from a stakeholder or expert, it is difficult to claim that that constitutes achallenge to ideas because it might lack relevance.
I also ask students to use contrasting words to clearly show that they are challenging ideas.
Instead of students asking “How about from ambulance drivers’ point of view?” they ask “But how
about from ambulance drivers’ point of view?” Instead of, “From the ambulance drivers’ point ofview…” They say, “However, from ambulance drivers’ point of view, they believe…” Using contrastingwords makes discussion assessment for instructors easier as using them signals that students areintending to use viewpoints for challenging ideas. The 2022 Handbook writers state that students canalso use viewpoints to support their opinions (i.e., one of the goals for Unit 1). Supporting opinionswith viewpoints helps students to better evaluate ideas. They might need to know not to use
contrasting words (e.g., however, yet) when they use viewpoints to support their own opinions.

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Using Balancing Opinions to Challenge and Evaluate Ideas
Students can evaluate ideas using balancing opinions by thinking of the most compelling
advantages and disadvantages, and then deciding whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Instructors can write a list of advantages and disadvantages of an idea, and then have students judge
whether the advantages are more convincing than the disadvantages. Next, students can explain
their rationale for their decision. In addition to helping students to evaluate, the rationale helps
students to think deeply about the idea because their reasoning usually is based on their values or
principles of abstract ideas. For example, students might think that the advantages of studying
abroad for a year outweigh the disadvantages because they value new experiences more than theyvalue familiarity.

Using Sources of Information to Challenge and Evaluate Ideas
The EDC Handbook writers (2022) state that students can ask for sources of information tochallenge ideas using the phrase, “How do you know about that?” To use sources of information forthe purpose evaluating ideas, students must judge sources of information based on theirtrustworthiness. Without doing any research, students might overuse the phrase, “It’s from myexperience” to support their opinions. For discussion preparation, students can spend 5 minutes
researching one to two sources of information. In another activity, instructors can present a few
sources of information and have students discuss to what extent the sources are trustworthy.
Students have a required debate course next semester, and they spend time considering the reliabilityof their sources, but I still think that if the Unit 3 goal is to evaluate ideas, then discussion preparation
for researching sources of information is justifiable.

Conclusion
To conclude, EDC students might need more assistance to realize the Unit 3 goals of challenging
and evaluating ideas. Revising some of the textbook explanations can add clarity. Students also
benefit from certain activities such as researching sources of information, using viewpoints to thinkof challenges, and providing a set of standards for evaluating ideas. Although these revisions to the
textbook explanations are not without issues, by providing an explicit connection between the Unit 3
goals and discussion skills, students might gain a deeper understanding of how to use these skills forthe stated purpose.

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References
Collins English Dictionary. (2022). Challenge the idea. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.collinsdictionar y.com/dictionar y/english/challenge-the-idea#:~:text=If%20you%20
challenge%20ideas%20or,truth%2C%20value%2C%20or%20authority
English Discussion Class Handbook (2022). Discussion Handbook. Tokyo, Japan: Rikkyo University.
Kita, S., Sturges, J. G., Arthurson, D., & Truxel, D. (2022). What’s Your Opinion? Interactive Skills for
Effective Discussion. Tokyo, Japan: Rikkyo University.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. (2022). Evaluation definition. Retrieved September 11, 2022,
from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/evaluate
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, August 11). Evaluation. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 11, 2022,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaluation

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Appendix
Example Worksheet for Unit 3 Discussion

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