Some of the most challenging activities a teacher of English can propose their students are those dealing with speaking. The students are reluctant because they need to focus on their discourse in order to deliver a coherent and persuasive presentation or argumentation. A very engaging activity in this respect in The Balloon Debate – a type of speaking activity that can involve either a small group of students or the entire class.
The students need to be aware of the fact their roles are very important: they have to either defend their character against being thrown overboard or they have to decide which character can be “lost” in order to save the sinking balloon.
The characters that they are randomly distributed have various roles in society and the students must bring relevant arguments to defend their “survival”.
For larger groups, the characters can vary from Stephen Hawking to Dalai Lama or Leonardo DiCaprio, Lionel Messi, Barack Obama, Mihai Eminescu etc. Or, if the group consists of only three members, they can impersonate characters dealing with moral dilemmas – for example, who will the students save from dying:
- the husband who has just invented the cure for leukemia
- the wife who is the only one who knows how to fly the balloon back to safety or
- their innocent baby girl?
Thus, the students need to prepare their defence and convince the other students that they deserve a chance. Moreover, the choices the students make after hearing the characters’ depositions are not always the ones that would be considered “the most appropriate ones, given the context” but choices that reflect the characters’ power of persuasion.
Nevertheless, the students that impersonate the given characters must also provide strong arguments and not only use emotional manipulation against their “student-judges”.
The discussions thus make students get actively involved, without caring too much about the way they express their ideas or if their grammar or vocabulary is faulty at times – they have to act on “survival mode” and convince others that they deserve their chance to “survive” the balloon crashing.
This type of activity can be employed during Grammar lessons as well – to practise the use of If Clauses or to tackle various elements of Vocabulary when tackling highly appreciated topics like Crimes and punishment, a topic that teens really love.
Notwithstanding the effort the students need to put into this type of activity, the satisfaction at the end of their deposition, if it happens to bring their salvation with it, is really worthwhile.
The pedagogical idea of such The Balloon Debate is not a new one – it was originally a lifeboat challenge and it got its shape in the 20th century under the influence of various ELT specialists. It is a very versatile activity, as it can:
- be adapted for various ages and language levels
- involve characters ranging from writers, inventors or even book characters to contemporary personalities (influencers, writers, sportspeople etc)
- make students think critically
- allow students to practise speaking confidently in front of an audience
- “force” students to assess the importance of the arguments brought to “trial”
- make students build a strong case under pressure
- allow students to gain experience speaking in an informal debate setting.
The Balloon Debate can also be turned into a Writing and Reading activity as each student receives a randomly distributed character for which he has to plead in written form. Their plea can be posted live, on a Padlet board so as all students can be part of the decision. They can be given 10 minutes to write their argumentation and then all pleas will be read so as to make an idea about each student’s top 5 choices. After voting for their favourite characters, the final trial can be turned into a Speaking activity as the top 5 choices need to further convince the audience to save them.
The Balloon Debate can be easily used during History or Literature classes, as it can accustom students to thinking critically and providing relevant arguments in order to support their ideas or their favourite characters. This will further deepen their thinking skills and creativity. Conversely, the students can learn, by treating their case superficially or not employing any persuasive techniques that they may lose their chance to “survive” if their destiny is decided by someone else – who is not impressed with their communicative skills.
At the end of the activities (be them Writing, Reading or Speaking ones) connected to The Balloon Debate, a further topic for debate can arise: “Never judge a book by its cover”. This can further lead to Writing or Speaking tasks: they can write an essay about deceiving looks or they can write or speak about Gheorghe Dinică’s legendary line from Filantropica: “The hand that doesn’t tell a story gets no penny / Mâna întinsă care nu spune o poveste, nu primeşte pomană!”