CLUSTER OF EDUCATION AND SOSIAL SCIENCES

OUMH2203

ENGLISH FOR WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

GROUP DISCUSSION (20%)

INSTRUCTIONS TO LEARNERS

1. The group discussion assessment requires a learner to play a role and participate in
a small group discussion that consists of four to five learners (maximum).

2. The scenario given is basically in a small meeting situation where learners will be
given a meeting scenario and they need to discuss and quickly decide on their roles
before the group discussion started.

3. Learners need to understand and memorize their roles as the question paper will
need to be handed back to the tutor before the group discussion started. The
reasons are:
a. to test the focus and the comprehension of the learners of the task given; and
b. to encourage an active and spontaneous feedbacks from the learners and not
relying on notes on paper.

4. The tutor assigns the learners to a group of four – five members (maximum). The
group members will also be given a precise time-slot for the session.

5. Each group will be given 10 - 15 minutes for the group discussion.

1/4
Note: This meeting should be conducted formally, and professionally. Therefore, learners
need to contribute actively and use a variety of language functions, relevant and specific
expressions in order to communicate ideas clearly and effectively.

HOW IS THE SESSION CONDUCTED?

1. The group discussion assessment should be conducted before the Final

Examination day.

2. At the appointed date and time, a group of four – five learners (maximum) will be
invited to enter the specified room.

3. The learners will proceed to sit randomly around a table for the purpose of the
meeting, monitoring by the tutor.

4. On the table in front of each seat, learners will find a piece of paper which details
the scenario stating a group of learners to assume and the specific assigned role(s)
of the learners will play.

5. Learners need to skim and scan the scenario and the roles and then quickly decide
on their roles by informing the tutor of their choice of roles before the group
discussion started.

6. The learners will then have two minutes to prepare silently OR to have a pre-
discussion with other members before they begin the discussion.

7. Learners are not allowed to write on the question paper nor remove it from the
table. Once the two minutes is over, each learner needs to handed back the
question paper to the tutor.

2/4
8. Any member of the group may kick-off the interaction. To score high marks, the
learners should get into their assigned topic(s) and attempt to speak more,
convincingly and confidently, using appropriate strategies for effective
communication.

9. A timer will be used to time the session. When the time is out, the tutor will signal
to stop and the group of learners will then exit the room.

10. The tutor will award marks to each group member and enter their learners’ marks
in OMES. The next group in line will then be invited to enter the room for their
group discussion session.

3/4
 RATING SCALE

Score Communicator Descriptors

16 - 20 Effective Effective communication. A task performed very

Communicator competently. Appropriate response to group members
and situation. Coherent with clarity of ideas. Linguistic
features almost always effective; communication not
affected by minor errors.
11 – 15 Good Communication generally effective. A task performed
Communicator competently. Generally appropriate response to group
members and situation. Coherent with some good
ideas. Linguistic features generally effective;
communication generally not affected by errors.
5 – 10 Modest Communication generally not effective. A task
Communicator generally performed poorly. Generally inappropriate
response to group members and situation. Somewhat
coherent, but generally lacks clarity of ideas. Linguistic
features generally poor; communication sometimes
affected by major errors.
0–4 Poor No effective communication. No evidence of ability to
Communicator perform tasks. No evidence of ability to respond to
group members and situation. Incoherent and poor
use of linguistic features.

(20 marks)

4/4