Duolingo Speaking Topics often include opinion based or argumentative questions. These questions prompt discussions or debates by presenting different viewpoints or perspectives on a particular topic or issue. These questions often have no straightforward or definitive answer, and you may hold differing opinions based on their beliefs, values, and experiences. Argumentative questions encourage critical thinking, reasoning, and the ability to construct well-supported arguments.
In this post I have provided tips on how to answer opinion based questions in the Duolingo speaking test with an example question and answer. Let’s see how we can present our opinions on a topic.The following question is about inclusive educational system in which special need students get educated in regular schools. Let’s find how the question is structured.
Q.Some educational systems promote inclusive education which means inclusion of students with special needs in public schools. Do you think this is the right approach to education or should they have separate schools?
This is how you should speak your answer to the above opinion based question:
Give Introductory or Topic Sentence
Start with the main idea or the introduction. The first sentence will make it clear what you are going to talk about in the passage or what is your opinion about the issue. For example, you can say:
” In my opinion, it is the type and severity of their special need that would determine whether the special needs kids should go to the regular school or special schools.”
Give Supporting Details
After you have made it clear what you think about the issue, give supporting details. You can write 2-3 main arguments using examples and transition words. Let’s take a look at the sentence which will follow the first sentence:
“The first thing is that students with mild to moderate exceptionalities can be incorporated in the regular school system. For example, a student with partial blindness can be provided with assistive technology in the classroom and thus function normally like other kids. In the same way, students with physical disabilities can be included in the regular classroom with equipment like wheelchairs or walkers. On the other hand, kids with extreme behavioural issues can create a lot of challenges for the teachers and fellow students; thus, it is not practical to include them in a class with other students. There are situations when students with autism or anxiety disorders disrupt the classroom and make it impossible to keep the study environment healthy.
Although it is important that the special need students learn to interact and socialize with other students , it is also a reality that dealing with special need kids entails extra efforts and hard work for the teacher. The quality of teaching can suffer if he / she has to manage diverse group of students in the class. “
Add a conclusion
After listing and explaining reasons for your opinion, give a conclusion and say how to implement a solution to the problem. In the case of this question, you can say:
“Having said that, I would strongly say that though special kids are as important as other kids, their type of exceptionality should be taken into consideration before including them in the public school. For kids with extreme or multiple disabilities, it is better to educate them in a special school where their needs are taken care of in a better way.”
I hope you have learned from this sample answer as how to answer an argumentative question.You can find more sample Duolingo Speaking Topics with Answers by visiting the category page about Duolingo Speaking.
