Using Debates to Teach English

[Music] [Applause] debating is a formal process in which the speakers make a particular point or argument and then defend that point our argument with supporting points debating is a great activity to do with our students particularly our higher level students because debating allows students to practice a lot of key communication skills so skills of debating allows students to practice include offering an opinion agreeing and disagreeing these are really important skills particularly when communicating in an English speaking culture in this session we take a look at debating and what we can do with our students in our speaking classes to help them develop their debating skills we'll start the session by taking a look at what debating is we'll discuss the role that debating can have in the language classroom we'll go over the logistics of debating and the structure of a formal debate and we'll review some of the key language that key phrases that students need in order to debate successfully and we'll wrap up with a look at some debating activities to use in your speaking lessons [Music] in order to understand what a debate really is we need to compare and contrast three concepts the first is an argument an argument is an informal unplanned and usually highly emotional disagreement between two or more people argument has a second meaning which we also need to be aware of an argument can also be a position or an opinion that someone's going to defend when discussing an issue with someone the final of the three concepts is a debate the debate is a formal structured disagreement by two or more parties that follows a very clear process and in this debate there's usually someone who takes the affirmative so they agree with a position and someone who takes the negative so they disagree with a position the debate follows a very clear structure as I mentioned so there are opening arguments or opening introductions there are further arguments and key points or key supporting details there are rebuttals and then there are closing arguments speakers take turns speaking and they're usually strictly timed so speakers cannot exceed the time that they've been given a final point to emphasize with a debate is that it is planned so everyone knows ahead of time what the topic is and everyone knows ahead of time what their position on this particular topic is so participants in the debate carefully plan what they're going to say when it's there a lot of turn in the debate process [Music] debates can take place in a classroom setting so it's an academic endeavor that students take part in where they can also take place in a competitive environment where teams are competing to be named the debating team of the year or something like that in our language classrooms however there's a really strong role for debating debating helps students practice giving opinions agreeing and disagreeing and these are all key communication skills in english-speaking cultures particularly because these cultures are very individualistic individuals universe speaking cultures are always called upon to give opinions and to defend positions so debating is a way for our students to learn these crucial skills in addition to learning how to express opinion agree or disagree our students can also learn some additional skills when they're practicing debating these include how to build a logical and structured argument how to rebut an argument how to use facial expression body language and gestures to be persuasive and how to use speaking speed volume words stress and intonation to also be persuasive there are a lot of reasons to use debates with our language students we can start debating with students who are as low as an intermediate level and then as students become more advanced with their language proficiency we obviously increase the length of the debate and the complexity but it's never too early to start our students on these fundamental debating skills [Music] formal debates can vary in terms of how many people are on each debating team how long each person can speak and how many debating rules there are in your handout in activity 3 we've given you one possible debating structure and I'll go over that one now so we have two teams team a and B and each team has four people debater number one from each of the two teams has one minute introduce their team's position so Tina goes first and then Team B debater number two from each team then comes in and argues for that position by providing supporting details and examples and these two debaters have two minutes then debater number three from both teams rebuts the other team's arguments this is actually the hardest position the rebuttal position and the rebuttals are two minutes each for each team finally debater number four from each team offers the concluding remarks if you run your debate as a real formal debate is actually run there are a few more roles that you need to film the first is a timekeeper so this person makes sure that each speaker will only speaks for his or her a lot of time the second position is a moderator so the moderator makes sure that none of the debaters overlap or interrupt each other and that they really stick to what they're supposed to stick to so the moderator can actually interrupt at any time and then you need one or more judges and these judges evaluate the arguments that each team is making and decides who the winner is there's a lot of planning that goes into a debate so team members have to get together and decide what they're actually going to say and when they're going to say there's two main stages in a debate when team members are planning there's the argument stage and the rebuttal stage the argument stage starts with an introduction of the team's position here's what we're stating here's our opinion here's what we're going to argue then the arguments day continues with all of the supporting points that the team has come up with to defend their position so these points can be concepts definitions examples and illustrations there is certain language that students use to signal that they're in the argument stage of their debate this language includes sequence markers so 1st 2nd 3rd then finally it includes opinion markers or opinion words so it is our position that we believe that we favor such-and-such argument and so on and finally there are cause and effect markers or connectors this is such and such therefore because thus so these are different phrases that we want our students to learn and use in the argument stage of their debate in the rebuttal stage of the debate students argue that the opposing teams argument is factually logically or morally flawed in this stage of the bait there are certain phrases as well that students use the first set of phrases are sequence markers once again first second third then finally next and so on the second set of phrases our perspective markers so from a factual perspective or factually speaking or logically speaking and finally there are phrases for disagreement I disagree with that because I don't believe that because [Music] there's even more language that we can teach our students so that they're even better equipped to be successful in a debate so let's take a look in more detail at this language that we want to give our students we can teach our students expressions for expressing opinion I think that I believe that it seems to me that it's my feeling that in my opinion if you ask me for my point of view I feel that I'm convinced sure positive that I think bullies do that I tend to think that and I'm inclined to feel we also need to give our students phrases for agreeing because a really tricky strategy when debating is to appear to agree with your opponent but then to twist it to demonstrate that you actually disagree so phrases for agreeing include I agree yes of course absolutely you're right you're absolutely right I agree with you I think so too that's a good point that's right you're right I feel the same way that's exactly how I feel that's just what I was thinking and there's even more phrases that we can give our students for disagreeing because ultimately this is what they want to do with their opponents they want to disagree I disagree with that statement I disagree have you thought about such-and-such instead or and if you consider I agree with you but I also think that I see what you mean but you have a point but that may be true but maybe but don't you think that I'm afraid I disagree with you I'm sorry but I can't agree with you and we've got our sequence markers 1st 2nd 3rd 4th we've also got next then and finally we have phrases for paraphrasing this is a good rebuttal strategy as well if I hear what you are saying if I understand correctly so what you are saying is that so basically what you mean is let me repeat what you said and finally we need to give our students phrases for summarizing to summarize let me restate the main ideas here are the key points [Music] the most obvious activity to do with your students so that they can practice debating is to run a formal debate however formal debates don't work with all classes they definitely work with classes at an intermediate level and higher but just because your class doesn't fit this profile doesn't mean you should not use debating in your class there are a lot of variations on debates that we can do with our students that make debating more manageable for students with lower language proficiencies we can use the same activities to help our higher level students build up their debating skills the first activity is called argument brainstorming put your students into groups of four and then write a fairly controversial statement on the board make sure I don't concede it assign positions to each group of four so some of the groups of four will be for the position statement that you wrote on the board and some of them will be against give each group of four a piece of chart paper and give them five to ten minutes to brainstorm as many points as possible to support the particular position you've given them with respect to that statement once students have finished brainstorming the argument for their particular position have them go back to each point and figure out how they're going to support that point with examples numbers statistics and other supporting details give them a few minutes to try that finally have students switch papers with a team that has the opposite position they have to read what's on their new paper and then as a team they switch their position so they now agree with the points on the paper they now have they then look at what's there and see if they can add anything else to wrap all of this up have teams present the points they've got for their particular positions once this process is complete you've got a really solid set of positions and points to support both sides of the argument the next activity is called rebuttal practice or rebuttal circle to start the activity quickly review phrases that we use to disagree with someone or to rebut an argument then get the students standing in a circle give the entire class a statement or a position and select a student to offer a point in support of that position that student then picks another student anyone in the circle who then has to rebut what the first student said that student picks another student who rebuts what the second student said and so students keep picking other students to rebut what they've said until everyone's had a chance then offer another statement or position and do the same thing over and over again this way students get lots and lots of practice read budding arguments the final activity is called a mini pair debate half students get a partner and designate one partner as a and one as B then put a statement on the board tell all of the a students that they are going to debate with their partner and their job is to support the statement that you've put up there tell the B students that their job is to disagree with that statement give students about five minutes to argue with their partners about this particular statement then stop the debate and put another statement up there there are a few ways to mix this activity up after each mini debate students can get another partner so they're always working with someone different and a fun way to mix this up is to make your statement a little bit goofy so you could say something like chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla ice cream and the final way to mix this up is to have students actually sit or stand a fair distance apart then when they're debating they have to speak very loudly and they have to articulate their words very carefully so this helps students work on their volume as their debate debates are such a great activity to do in your speaking classes you do have to be careful because students can get very competitive so things can get a little bit of hot so sometimes the after does calm people down but students really have a lot of fun establishing a position in arguing for that position formal debates really give students a structure in which they can become comfortable arguing and then the smaller debating activities help them build up their skills for debating in smaller more manageable chunks so have some fun trying these with your students [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Advance Consulting for Education

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Keywords: Advance Consulting for Education, ACE, Teaching English, English as a Second Language, Teaching ESL, ESL, EFL, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, Teaching Tips, Teaching Techniques, Teaching Strategies, Teacher Professional Development, Teacher PD, Professional Development, The PD Exchange, The Professional Development Exchange, www.thepdexchange.ca, debating, debates, teaching speaking, how to teach speaking, www.aceducation.ca, Dianne Tyers, using debates to teach English

Id: ljHhesCzH98

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 03 2019