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Successful Debate for Expressing Opinions

时间:2016-04-14 17:01:18

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Successful Debate for Expressing Opinions

Teachers of English may hesitate to teach debate because they think it is beyond their students’ language ability, or proficiency1.

But debate can be a powerful tool. It can help students learn to speak naturally and to listen carefully.

Professor Charles Lebeau teaches English and debate in Japan. He wrote “Discover Debate” with Michael Lubetsky. The book helps English teachers and learners understand how to carry on a simple debate.

The “Discover Debate” approach has three stages: creating a visual aid to communicate an argument, presenting the argument and answering the other team’s argument.

Each stage puts increasing demands on language ability. It begins with a pre-debate experience.

Good topics for debate

When teaching debate to English learners, Mr. Lebeau recommends beginning with “controlled practice.” Students work in pairs to practice saying opinions and giving reasons in short conversations. They learn to identify opinions and arguments about everyday topics, such as sports stars, foods, weather and habits. This controlled practice gives students the basic language skills they need to carry on a debate.

Teachers may be tempted2 to give students serious topics, such as “People should stop using nuclear power.” However, Mr. Lebeau cautions4 that English learners may not have the necessary language ability to handle such topics. More serious topics often require special vocabulary and research.

“When I’m introducing specific skills, step-by-step, I want to use a really simple, fun topic, so they already can understand the content. The content is not part of the challenge; the vocabulary is not part of the challenge, it’s something they are very, very familiar with, so we can focus on the skills. So the topics for introducing the skills can be simple and fun – like, for example, cats make better pets than dogs.”

Organizing debate in large classes

Mr. Lebeau’s classes in Japan are like many in universities; they have 40 to 50 students. He has students form debate teams of three or six, depending on the total number of students. Each team creates a visual aid to show their thinking on the topic.

In last week’s article, we explained the visual aid. The visual is a house: a roof represents an opinion, pillars are the reasons supporting the opinion and the foundation is the evidence.

Mr. Lebeau says creating the visual aid is not a verbal5 skill. It is a thinking skill. Language proficiency, he says, is not really required.

In the next stage, students present their argument. They have to do some talking, but not too much.

“They point to the visual, to the house, ‘this is our opinion’ - the opinion is on the house. 'These are our reasons.' And the reasons are on the house. 'Let me explain each reason.' The visual can do a lot of the talking for the team; for the student.”

The third stage is answering the opposing team’s argument. Here, debaters need a higher level of language ability.

Mr. Lebeau recommends pausing for the opposing team to develop their answers, or refutations. Each team might go to a different area and discuss the weak points in the opposing argument.

Students must first think about the arguments carefully. In “Discover Debate,” Michael Lubetsky and Charles Lebeau include a guide to help students evaluate arguments. The evaluation7 also takes advantage of the visual aid of a house.

Students are asked to look for building flaws9, or problems. They identify things that are either “not true” or “not important.”

Students can write easily remembered abbreviations11 and simple statements on their opponents’ houses: “NT” for not true, “NAT” for not always true, or “NNT” for not necessarily true. For true statements they feel are not important, they can also write “It’s not relevant,” “It’s not significant” or “It’s easy to solve.”

These simple expressions make it easier for students to refute12 their opponents’ arguments.

“Cats are cheaper than dogs - maybe they’re a couple dollars cheaper so it’s not really significant. And it’s easy to solve: Cats are cleaner than dogs, yes, in general, that’s true, but it’s easy to solve, give your dog a bath. They can draw these on the house, and what it does is, it takes away some of the pressure on the speaking.”

After the break, the teams return to debating. Each side takes a turn answering the other side’s arguments. Mr. Lebeau says teams can be divided so three students present the case and a different three students present the refutations.

“With a large class I’ll have several debates running at the same time. I’ll direct traffic with a stopwatch and say,  'Okay, time's up, so next, it's the other team's turn.' We can manage a large class that way.”

A briefer debate structure

Traditional debate, as we described in our previous article, includes several cycles of presentation and refutation6. For English learners, one cycle of presentation and refutation is usually enough practice.

“Just having the team present their case, and present their refutations, is sufficient, and usually a lot of fun, and everyone feels that they have accomplished13 something. I always tell them, ‘Everyone’s a winner, we’ve all done a good job.’”

Mr. Lebeau says sometimes he asks the rest of the class to vote on which side won. Asking for audience feedback gives the lesson a good ending. But, he says, additional discussion depends on the situation and the level of the students.

Next week, in Part Three of “Successful Debate,” we will explain the reasons for learning to debate in business as well as in the academic world. We learn how debating gives students a better understanding of Western culture and lets students practice critical thinking.

Words in This Story

caution3 - v. to warn or tell (someone) about a possible danger, problem, etc.

refutation - n. act of proving that something is not true

flaw8 - n. weak point

abbreviation10 - n. a shortened14 form of a word or name that is used in place of the full word or name

proficiency - n. how well a person does something


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 proficiency m1LzU     
n.精通,熟练,精练
参考例句:
  • He plied his trade and gained proficiency in it.他勤习手艺,技术渐渐达到了十分娴熟的地步。
  • How do you think of your proficiency in written and spoken English?你认为你的书面英语和口语熟练程度如何?
2 tempted b0182e969d369add1b9ce2353d3c6ad6     
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词)
参考例句:
  • I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚,但还是没开口。
  • I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。
3 caution caution     
n.小心,谨慎,警告;vt.告诫,警告
参考例句:
  • You should exercise extreme caution when driving in fog.在雾中开车要极为小心。
  • There is no need for such caution.不必如此小心谨慎。
4 cautions b74630dd11d38d9a74daa480edb1e0dd     
n.小心( caution的名词复数 );谨慎;(对危险或风险的)警告;(警察向犯轻罪的人发出的)警告v.警告,提醒,劝…小心( caution的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • But Pearlson cautions that the findings are simply generalizations. 但是波尔森提醒人们,这些发现是简单的综合资料。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 大脑与疾病
  • Cautions politicians always wait for the cat to jump before agreeing with any proposal. 谨慎的政治家在对任何提议表示赞同之前总是要先观望形势。 来自辞典例句
5 verbal mi9wJ     
adj.口头的,用言辞的,用文字的,动词的
参考例句:
  • Verbal statements are no guarantee.口说无凭。
  • I delivered a verbal protest against their brutal acts.我对他们的暴行提出口头抗议。
6 refutation EAmzY     
n.辩驳,反驳
参考例句:
  • The refutation is forceful and every word hits home.批驳有力,句句中的。
  • Truth fears no refutation.真理不怕人驳。
7 evaluation onFxd     
n.估价,评价;赋值
参考例句:
  • I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
  • The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。
8 flaw MQPzx     
n.缺陷,瑕疵,裂缝;vt.使有缺陷,损害
参考例句:
  • The flaw in this stamp makes it less valuable.这张邮票因为有点缺陷,不那么值钱。
  • Jealousy is a big flaw in his character.嫉妒是他品格中的一个大缺点。
9 flaws 99be94e405a21eb047ad3d55eba9a622     
n.缺点( flaw的名词复数 );错误;裂痕
参考例句:
  • The argument is full of fundamental flaws. 这段论述充满根本性的错误。
  • His remark is full of contradictions and flaws. 他的话前后矛盾,破绽百出。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
10 abbreviation LyCz9     
n.(用词首字母组成的)缩写
参考例句:
  • A.D.is the abbreviation for"advertisement".A.D.是advertisement的缩写。
  • The postal abbreviation for Kansas is KS.堪萨斯州的邮政缩写是KS。
11 abbreviations a4c8134a554a0809846626fa94ea59dc     
n.缩写( abbreviation的名词复数 );缩写词;略语
参考例句:
  • Scratch the subject of defence and acronyms, abbreviations, and buzzwords fly out. 话题触及国防,缩合字,缩写字和行话就满天飞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • All abbreviations are to be written out. 所有的缩写都要完整地写出来 来自辞典例句
12 refute kA9zZ     
vt.驳斥,反驳,证明
参考例句:
  • It was the kind of rumour that it is impossible to refute.这是那种让人根本没法批驳的谣言。
  • It goes without saying that we have the right to refute them publicly.不用说我们有权公开驳斥他们。
13 accomplished UzwztZ     
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的
参考例句:
  • Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
  • Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。
14 shortened 8560273e5cfe310f2c9d5ab5defa48f3     
v.弄短,缩短( shorten的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She shortened the skirt by an inch. 她把裙子缩短了一英寸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Vacations have lengthened and the work week has shortened. 假期延长,工作周就缩短了。 来自辞典例句

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