Teaching Debate by Chris Parsons
First let me start off by giving you a little background to the context in which I teach debate classes. The debate classes are held in the third semester of an advanced communication course (OCII - previously OCC). Prior to the debate semester we do work on speech giving and discussion which, although separate parts of the OCC curriculum, serve nicely as a basis from which to start teaching debate. The OCII class is an elective class at a relatively high level school so the students are (for the most part) well motivated. Warming Up I begin the approach to debate by using two activities that introduce the idea of creating a persuasive argument that I`m sure you`ll be familiar with. The Parachute Activity
The students are told that they are on a plane that is about to crash but there are only three parachutes. Each student is then given either a character (e.g. President Bush) or a profession (e.g. Doctor). Each student must then present their case for survival using whatever means of persuasion necessary (i.e. pleading, threats etc). I usually give them around 10 minutes to prepare their cases. Each student then presents their case in turn. At the end of the class you take a vote with each choosing one person to give a parachute to (not themselves!). The three students that received the most votes are given the parachutes and are the winners of the activity. Take care to emphasize to the students that their decisions should be based on who gives the nest argument, not which profession / person they think is most important. The NASA Activity
Split the class into groups of about 5 students. Each group is given a copy of this activity sheet. In their groups they must prioritize the items and give a quick reason for their choice. After the students have put their items in order go around each team and ask them which item they chose for No 1, No 2 etc. Use this opportunity to ask them questions about, or criticize (nicely!) their choices. This introduces he idea of having to make rebuttals to support a proposition. Introducing `Debate` After these activities it is necessary to introduce the objectives and formal structure of a debate. Two points that I think are central to debate and should be communicated to the students are: The objective is not to reach a conclusion or agreement, but to present your case as firmly as possible. The skill to debating as creating an effective argument regardless of whether or not they share the same point of view. Students, therefore, will not necessarily be arguing their own beliefs or opinions.
I introduce the formal structure of the debate with a brief explanation of each part as follows: The proposition
Affirmative Constructive Speech
Negative Constructive Speech
1st Negative refutation or rebuttal
1st Affirmative refutation or rebuttal
2nd Negative refutation or rebuttal
2nd Affirmative refutation or rebuttal
Affirmative Summary Speech
Negative Summary Speech
The JTE and I then give an example of a debate from on of the OCII textbooks. Students follow the debate using their own textbooks so that they can see for themselves how the structure of a debate works. Choosing the Proposal The JTE and I give a variety of simple, appropriate and interesting titles to the students. Resent suggestions have included "High School Students should be allowed to have part-time jobs", "English education should start in Primary Schools", "Students should wear school uniforms" and "Students should be allowed to ride motorbikes to school". I find that it is best to avoid negative expression within the title as this can confuse the students a little i.e. it is better to phrase the proposal "students should be allowed to have part-time jobs" rather than "Students should not have part time jobs". The students then vote for their preferred proposal. This ensures that they are debating a topic that interests them. Preparing the debate My objective is not to have a "free" debate as I think that this is beyond the English capabilities of my students, especially as they are learning not only new English, but also new debating, skills, but to have a "structured" debate around the chosen proposal. The class is split into an Affirmative Team and a Negative team. Each part of the debate (i.e. constructive speeches) is allotted two classes. At the beginning of the first class I present each team with a worksheet explaining the purpose of that part of the debate, key words or expression that might be useful and a space or them to write. For example, before we write the constructive speech I give them advice suggesting that they should have two or three points, with their strongest coming first and phrases such as "we the Affirmative team believe that..." and so on. Over the course of the two lessons the JTE and myself help the students to prepare their portion of the debate. We allow them to discuss their ideas with each other in Japanese. When the worksheet is completed we photocopy it and pass it to the other team so that they may read it and prepare their rebuttals etc according to the arguments the other team has made. We continue to do this for each part of the debate introducing advice and key phrases for each part of the debate as we go. After 8 classes we have a completed debate on paper. Performing the debate I collate all the parts of the debate and write a complete debate script incorporating myself as the Chairperson of the debate. We then perform the debate in front of an audience (preferably other English teachers). The audience is responsible for voting for the winner of the debate based on which team gave the superior argument. Recently I have been filming the debate and showing it to the following OCII class as the debate example explained in `introducing debate`. A copy of the script of the most recent debate completed by my students can be found here. Moving towards a "free debate" Time restrictions mean that we do not have time to try a free debate. However, as the final end of term test, we have a `debate test` (this is possible because as each bi-termly assessment we have a speaking test) in which the students are given a proposition the week before the test and told to choose a negative or affirmative position. In this test, where each student is allotted 4-5 minutes with me, I will ask them to give a constructive speech to which I will make a short single point refutation. They must then provide a rebuttal to my refutation. My students find debating challenging but I am continuously surprised by the ingenuity of their arguments and the speed to which they adapt to the unfamiliar process. |