AF_AG01_Managing a farm
Unit 4: Speaking
In this unit you will improve your speaking skills. The goals of this unit are:
 Practising your pronunciation of agriculture vocabulary.
 Improving your fluency to speak.
 Gaining self-confidence.
 Participating in a debate related to agriculture.
 Giving arguments and opinions.
 Exchanging opinions with your partners.
 Incorporating in your language expressions for debate and discussion.
 Speaking showing politeness and courtesy.
 Linking your sentences.
In order to achieve these purposes, do the following activities.
1.1 Record yourself reading a text
This activity is aimed to practise the pronunciation of the reading text of Unit 1. You can find the
text in the following link:
Organic Farming
Read aloud the text. While you read it, record your voice using Vacaroo, an online voice
recording service:
Vocaroo
After pressing stop, the service will provide you a link which contains your recording. You must
send that link to your teacher.
Name this activity: Activity 1.1 – Speaking – Student name.
1.2 Record your proposal
This activity consists on recording your proposal of Unit 2. In order to achieve it, read aloud your
proposal while you record your voice using Vacaroo, the online voice recorder used in the
above activity:
Vocaroo
You must send the provided link to your teacher.
Name this activity: Activity 1.2 – Speaking – Student name.
1.3 Expressions for discussion and debate
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Individuals belonging to Anglo-Saxon culture are very polite. So, it is very important to learn,
acquire and practise their social rules in order to be accepted in their society and, most
importantly, in the workplace.
For this reason, before passing to the next activity, you will learn some expressions used in
debates and discussions. The purpose of this unit is to incorporate these expressions in your
speaking.
Giving opinion
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I think that...
In my opinion...
In my eyes...
As far as I am concerned, ...
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Showing disagreement
I see your point, but ...
I am with you 100%, but I still think that...
I partially agree with you.
We should consider....
We should take into consideration...
I am afraid I cannot agree with you.
I do not share your point of view.
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Using ‘fillers’ to have time to think
That is an interesting point. Let me think about that.
Um... That is interesting. Just give me a minute to think about it.
I never thought about that before, but probably I would say that...
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Asking for opinion
What is your opinion?
What do you think about that?
Do you agree with what we said before?
What do you consider?
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Showing agreement
I (totally) agree with you.
I share your point of view.
That is absolutely right.
I am with you 100% (on that).
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Arriving to an agreement
Weighing the cons and pros, we can say that...
We should arrive to some agreement.
Considering all the opinions...
We agree to disagree.
We agree to differ.
You can consult more expressions in the following links:
Expressions for discussion and debate 1
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Expressions for discussion and debate 2
Expressions for discussion and debate 3
Expressions for discussion and debate 4
HIGHLIGHTS
Anglo-Saxon culture is extremely polite, so:
 do not express a strong disagreement
 do not forget to sound polite even expressing disagreement.
1.4 Exercise
In order to acquire these expressions, let’s make an exercise. The following text is a written
conversation between organic farmers and conventional farmers. Read it several times and try
to decide which points are claimed by conventional farmers and which points are claimed by
organic farmers.
After that, fill in the gaps using the above expressions. There are various options for each gap.
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We are here to talk about conventional and organic farming. ________ (1) all
farms should convert onto organic farms due to their uncountable advantages.
________ (2), but ________ (3) that organic methods are less productive and
they can give place to losses.
________ (4) conventional methods are polluting the environment. Moreover, the
amount of harvest is lower in organic farming and the risk of losing crops is
higher.
________ (5), but organic farming produces a better quality of products and they
contain a fantastic perfume and taste, although their aesthetics are not so good.
________ (6). Not only that, but the crops are also likely to be attacked by pests.
________ (7). Biological pest control can avoid those problems and it is even
better than chemical products.
________ (8). Lots of bugs can be used in order to attack pests.
________ (9), but if the attack is very severe, I cannot risk my crop to use just
biological pest control.
________ (10), but ________ (11) the environment consequences of using
agrochemicals.
________ (12), we should consider a medium point.
1.5 Debate
Next activity is a debate on Skype during 20 minutes. The topic will be: ‘Conventional farming or
organic farming?’
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Half group will defend conventional farming and the other half will defend organic farming. No
participant will know which method defends until the debate is open.
Before the debate takes place, prepare your speaking in advance:
 Prepare arguments in order to defend your position (Unit 2).
 Review all the vocabulary related to farming (Unit 1).
 Review the linkers, conjunctions and connectors (Unit 2). They can give a good level to
your speech. Try to use them to link your sentences.
HIGHLIGHTS
Follow these points while the debate is taking place:
 All participants must give their opinion at least three times, not giving short answers
like ‘yes’, ‘no’, etc.
 Do not monopolize the conversation. On the contrary, ask the opinion of the other
participants.
 Do not forget to sound polite in your speaking. Maintain your intonation calm, keep
your voice level and use expressions from point 1.3.
 Use expressions to give your opinion and exchange opinions with your partners.
 Do not worry about your mistakes, you are allowed to rephrase.
 Try to use as many terms related to farming as possible.
 Try to use as many expressions and connectors as possible to enrich your speaking.
 While you are speaking, keep the pace of your talk.
TO KNOW MORE
If you want to listen to some debates as an example, you can consult the following link:
Example of debate (from minute 6:53 to minute 10:30)
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