1 Deal with ‘Do you agree or disagree –

To what extent do you agree or

disagree?’ questions

Learing objectives
2 Cohesion Devices - Exercises.

3 Answer the essay question

School uniforms should be
compulsory.
Do you agree or disagree?
Whether school uniforms are compulsory or
not has been always a debatable question.
Should public school students be allowed to
make individual decisions about clothing, or
should all students be required to wear a
uniform? In my opinion, school uniforms are
the better choice for three reasons.
First, wearing school uniforms would help
make students’ life simpler. They would no
longer have to decide what to wear every
morning, sometimes trying on outfit after
outfit in an effort to choose the best one.
Therefore, uniforms would not only save time
but also would eliminate the stress often
associated with this chore.
Second, school uniforms influence students to act
responsibly in groups and as individuals. Uniforms
give students the message that school is a special
place for learning. In addition, uniforms create a
feeling of unity among students. For example,
when students do something as a group, such as
attend meetings in the conference room or eat
lunch in the cafeteria, the fact that they all wear
the same uniform would create a sense of
community.
Finally, school uniforms would help make all the
students feel equal. People’s standards of living differ
greatly, and some people are well-off while others are
not. People sometimes forget that school is a place to
get an education, not to promote a ‘fashion show’.
Implementing mandatory school uniform would make
all the students look the same regardless of their
financial status. In other words, school uniforms would
promote pride and help to raise the self-esteem of
students who cannot afford to wear stylish clothing.
In conclusion, there are many well-
documented benefits to implementing
mandatory school uniforms for
students. Public schools should require
uniforms in order to benefit both the
students and society as a whole.
 Introduction
Paraphrase the statement

State your opinion: In my

opinion, I totally/
completely agree/disagree
with the idea. / with the
idea ……
 paraphrase Smoking is a major cause of serious illness and
death throughout the world today. In the interest
of public health, governments should ban
cigarettes and other tobacco products. Do you
agree or disagree ?

Answer the question

Smoking is believed to be a main cause of fatal diseases and even death

worldwide nowadays. Therefore, governments should pass a law to prohibit
types of tobacco products, including cigarettes for a healthy community. In
my opinion, I completely/ totally agree with the idea/ opinion for the following
reasons.
 Body paragraphs
Body 1 To begin with, + point 1 (reason 1)
Explanation
Example (if any)
Body 2 On top of that/ In addition, + point 2
(reason 2)
Explanation
Example (if any)
 Conclusion
In conclusion, + restate your points 1,2

For these reasons, + restate your viewpoint in

the introduction
Many things can influence the academic achievement
and emotional growth of a student. In this regard,
peers have more of an impact than teachers do.
To what extent do you agree with this statement?
It is a common belief that a student’s school
performance and emotional development are
influenced more by teachers than by
classmates. However, I firmly believe that
classmates are more influential because
students are motivated academically by their
peers and become more mature by socializing
with them.
To begin with, students are motivated by competing with
their fellow classmates. Students usually have a desire to
outperform their peers by demonstrating broader
knowledge and achieving higher scores, competition is
especially fierce in the classroom, where students study the
same material in the same place. According to a recent
survey, students overwhelmingly stated that their peers
motivated them to study more than their teachers. This is
because competition played a key role in their motivation.
This study offers strong proof that classmates significantly
affect a student’s academic achievement.
On top of that, socializing at school allows children to grow
emotionally through cultivating relationships with peers. Students
spend a large amount of their time in the classroom. Classmates
help them grow emotionally by providing them with new ideas,
beliefs, and experiences. This can help students develop a better
ability to control their emotions and get along with others. One
study, for example, shows that adolescents learn how to control
their tempers and cooperate with others mostly by interacting with
their friends at school. This demonstrates how important
relationships with classmates are for a child’s emotional
development.
To sum up, classmates create scholarly competition
and help students mature. For these reasons, it is
clear that a student’s academic achievement and
interpersonal development are affected more by
peers than by educators.
 3 Common grammatical structures used in writing
task 2

1 2 3

not only …….. but also Complex sentences: Complex sentences:

although/ if/ when relative clauses
 not only …….. but also
Clearly, not only do celebrities have few worries when it comes to
money, but their wealth also means that they can easily mitigate
(to make something less harmful, unpleasant, or bad) the
problems associated with their status.
Therefore, uniforms would not only save time but also would eliminate
the stress often associated with this chore.

The car not only is economical but also feels good to drive.

This puts an enormous amount of pressure not only on the

individuals concerned, but also on the people close to them.
 Cohesion devices

See the file sent to you.

1. People use television for some reasons.
2. They use television to relax.
3. The use television to forget about troubles.
4. The troubles occur daily.

People use television to relax and forget about daily

troubles.
1. There is another negative point about TV watching.
2. It may cause children to have difficulty
distinguishing between some things.
3. They don’t know what’s real.
4. They don’t know what’s not real.
Another negative point about TV watching is that it
may cause children to have difficulty distinguishing
between what is real and what is not real.
1. Television has changed over the years.
2. It now includes more and more programs.
3. These programs are inappropriate for
children.
Television has changed over the years to
include more and more programs that are
inappropriate for children.
Do the following exercises!
1. It is easy to use the Internet .
2. It is easy to use databases.
3. All we have to do is type in a few key words.
4. We wait a few moments.
1. We are now able to sit down in front of a
screen.
2. The screen is digital.
3. We can listen to a lecture.
4. The lecture is being given at another
university.
1. Assignments are becoming more common.
2. They are email assignments.
3. They occur at universities.
1. This is an additional information.
2. We do this without using a dictionary .
3. We can write papers.
4. The papers have no spelling mistakes.
In addition, without using a dictionary, we can
write papers that have no spelling mistakes.
 Vietnamese-English Translation (Cohesion Devices)
1. Trái lại, những đứa trẻ đến trường cùng bạn bè có cơ hội phát triển các kĩ năng xã hội. (attend school,
social skills)
2. Ví dụ, việc cho trẻ em làm việc nhà là một cách hiệu quả hơn để dạy chúng về tinh thần trách nhiệm.
(household chores, responsibility)
3. Ngoài ra, điện thoại di động có xu hướng (tend to) khiến con người ít quan tâm (considerate) tới
nhau hơn.
4. Nói cách khác, đôi khi một người phải mắc lỗi (make mistakes) để học từ những lỗi lầm đó.
5. Tóm lại, công cụ vô giá (invaluable) nhất của một học sinh thành công là sự chăm chỉ (diligence) và kỹ
năng quản lý thời gian (time management).
6. Kết luận lại, trẻ em cần tình yêu thương (affection) để phát triển những tính cách lành mạnh(healthy
personality).
7 Tuy nhiên, vấn đề này có thể được giải quyết (resolve) bằng việc dạy học sinh cách sử dụng (utilize)
Internet cho đúng.
 Watching TV

Watching movies

Leisure activities Playing games

Playing sports

Reading books
 Vocabulary
Positive Negative
 Positive Points - Sports
- Improve physical and mental health
- Feel an intense sense of belonging to one group
- Help prevent/eradicate (loại bỏ) illness/ serious diseases
- Boost performance at school.
- Enjoy longer life expectancy
- Stress buster (Physical activity is one of the best stress busters./
Reading a book can be a great stress buster.)
- Generate tremendous fund/ wealth through sports events 
facilitate tourism / promote commercial activities lead to/ result
in/ give rise to employment opportunities.
- an important/a key/a major driver of sth (động lực)
 Positive Points - Sports
- Leisure is a prized aspects of people’s lives.
- Outdoor recreational activities
- A form of self-expression (một cách thức để bày tỏ bản thân mình)
- Give people the opportunity to express some aspect of their
personality by doing something completely different from their daily
routine.
- Taking part in sports gives people the strongest desire to win.
 Negative points- Sports
Be faced with risk of injury : involve in physical activities
a time- consuming activity  interfere with other important activities such as academics,
work, and family time.
Some sports are costly in terms of equipment or membership fees.  some cannot afford
to take part in.
 Positive Points – TV, films
- Stress buster
(Reading a book / Watching a movie can be a great stress buster.)
- Provide a great deal of limitless knowledge/ enrich knowledge/
widen, broaden. expand sb’s horizons
- Help to entertain (Most children's television programmes aim to
educate and entertain at the same time.)/ help to escape from
monotorous/ dull routine.
- Refresh our mind after a pro-longed day at work/ school
- Play an important/ vital/ essential role in sb’s mental health (đóng
vai trò quan trọng …)
 Nagative Points – TV, films
- Be detrimental to sth (causing harm or damage)
Their decision could be detrimental to the future of the company.
- To have a detrimental effect/ impact on sth (physical health)
- Lead to/ result in/ give rise to sedentary lifestyle
(involving little exercise or physical activity)
- Be prone to sth. (health issues) (dễ bị, có khuynh hướng bị…)
- Weaken sb’s eyesight
- Spend less time studying/ physical activities
- Suffer from diseases: obesity
 Some common expressions
- To stem from st
E.g. Their disagreement stemmed from a misunderstanding. (bắt
nguồn từ..)
- To stand a chance (có cơ hội thành công)
- Take advantage of sth (tận dụng/ lợi dụng)
- Influence sb to do sth
E.g. What influenced you to choose a career in marketing?