This article describes freshman university students in China. They started their day with Morning Discussion, a student-hosted discussion of relevant topics. BBC and VOA reports were useful sources. The discussions offered opportunities for negotiation, clarification, and building communicative competence. As students took responsibility for the topics, classroom set up, and participation, their confidence grew. This was very successful, as shown by comments in students’ weekly diaries. Instructors stayed out of debates and did not interrupt to offer corrections.

This song in the Sing Out Loud Traditional Songs collection is a popular Western folk song.

This song in the Sing Out Loud Children's Songs collection emphasizes movement and parts of the body. Poster included.

If students are not meeting their goals, it may be that the reason is non-linguistic. Motivation is an important factor that teachers need to consider. The writer argues that carefully chosen ethics cases can motivate timid students to speak out by removing their fear of making mistakes and by encouraging them to talk about heart-felt beliefs. Since ethics cases may not have clear right and wrong answers, this sets them apart from other discussion topics. Debate will foster critical thinking skills.