ESL Conversation Topic — Social Problem Solving

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ESL Conversation Topic — Social Problem Solving

Written by Robert Vance on April 22, 2008 – 10:54 pm

Level: Intermediate - Advanced

The ESL topic of Social Problem Solving is a great way to give your voice a rest and get all of your students involved in the class.

Warmup: Divide students into four groups and give a copy of the following scenarios to each group. If you have enough copies, it would be good to give two to each group. After you have made the groups and handed out the copies, go through each of the following scenarios to make sure that the vocabulary is understood.

Topic Discussion: Assign a scenario to each group and give them ten minutes to come up with ways to solve their particular problem. After ten minutes, ask each group to give their solutions. Following each group’s response you should ask the other groups if they agree with the solution. The other groups can also add ideas of their own.

Problem Solving
1. You are eating at a restaurant one night. After you finish the meal, you discover that you left your wallet at home. You also discover that your cell phone is dead. You cannot remember any of your friends’ numbers. The restaurant tells you that you MUST pay or they will call the police. If you cannot ask a friend to bring you money, how do you solve this problem?
2. You make plans to go out with your girlfriend on Friday night to celebrate her birthday. On Friday afternoon, you suddenly remember that your best friend also has a birthday party on the same night. What do you do to solve this little problem?
3. One of your friends needed you to lend him 4000 RMB to buy a motorcycle. He was supposed to have paid you 2 months ago. He keeps telling you that he WILL give you the money. You really need it NOW. How do you solve this problem?
4. Your brother allowed you to use his car for a few hours. While you were using the car, you accidentally hit a tree and you damaged the front of the car. You know your brother loves the car very much and you afraid of telling him about the damage. What can you do to fix this situation?
5. Your best friend is perfect except for the fact that she ALWAYS has bad breath. You don’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her that her breath stinks but you know that she needs to find out somehow. How can you solve this problem?

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