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Everyday English 1
Everyday English 1

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4.5 Taking turns

Discussions where one person does most of the talking are not enjoyable for most people. The one person who may enjoy it is the person who won’t stop talking!

Good discussions are ones in which everyone gets a chance to speak and no one is afraid of saying what they really think. Discussions should make you think about the views you have. You can change the way you think by listening to what others have to say. They may help you to think about things that you hadn’t noticed before.

There are different ways of ‘not listening’ in a discussion.

When one person keeps putting their view across and refuses to let others get a word in, it is not a proper discussion!

Sometimes a discussion group may be dominated by the sort of person who doesn’t let anyone finish what they’re saying. This person has to comment on everything everyone says. Less confident people will have a lot of difficulty taking part in this kind of situation.

Some people can be very insensitive to others when sharing their views on controversial or sensitive subjects. For example, they may put forward an extreme view about how young offenders should be punished when there is someone in the group whose son is in trouble with the police.