Somes Articles about Debate

Around English

 Debating Activity…

Written By : Hj.Nina Herlina,SPd.

Are you an English teacher at your school ? and you want to  train  your student’s 

capability  in English Debating Activity, 

What is debating ? and why do people debate ?

Let’s   follow this article…………

Debating is a clash of arguments for every issue,there are always different sides of a story. Why people support or disagree with that certain issue. Debating seeks to explore the reasons behind each side.To make those reasons understandable and convincing,debater should deliver their arguments with  good communication skills.

Competitive debating is debating using a specific format. With a format people are regulated to speak one at a time and each side is given the same amount of time and opportunity to prove their point. This format rules out the possibility of who-speaks-loudest-or fastest shall win the debate. It encourages people not only to speak out but also to listen to other side. There many format of debates, Karlpopper format, British Parliamentary format, Australian Format, World school format, etc .

People debate for a number of reasons to  convince other people that his/her opinion is better, to listen to what other people think of an issue, to find which solution is the best for a problem etc. Since competitive debating aims to convince judges that a team’s argument is superior. It gives opportunities to use analytical-critical thinking and public speaking skills to the fullest skills which are very useful in everydaylife.

Remember !! Debating is not discussion….

Competitive debating is debating using format.

What format does Indonesian use? How does it works?

The Indonesian School Debating championships uses the World School Format. This format works as follows :

1 1. There are  2 teams debating, each consist of 3 ( three) debaters who would be 1^st , 2 ^nd and  3^rd

  2. One team shall be the government/affirmative side- the side agreeing with the motion, the  other team shall be the opposition/negative side-this side disagreeing with the motion.

3 3.  Each speaker will deliver the substancial speech of  7 minutes in duration, with the affirmative going first, afterwards, either the 1^st or 2^nd speaker on both sides will deliver the reply   spechees of 3 minutes in duration, with the negative going first.

4 4. The complete order of speaking during adebate  as follows :

Afirmative team                                                                          Negative team

^1st speaker(7 ‘/8 )                                                                     1^st speaker( 7’/8)

2^nd speaker ( 7/8’)                                                                      2^nd  speaker ( 7’/8)

3^rd speaker ( 7/8’)                                                                      3^rd speaker ( 7’/8 )

Reply Speaker                                                                               Reply Speaker

3’                                                                                                    3’

5    5. An  interruption,called Points of Information (POI), to the speaker delivering the speech. 

          POIs may be delivered between the 1^st and 7^{th .}

    The speaker has full authority to accept or reject a POI.

6   6.  A Time keeper shall signal the time. There will be  one knock  at the end of the 1^st and 7^th   

          minutes, to signal the starting and ending time for POI. And two knocks at the 8^th minutes to 

          signal that delivery time for the speech has ended. Any debater speaking before ,7 minutes

          shall be considered under-time and his /her points could be reduced as well.

7   7.  For reply speeches , there will be one knock at the 3^rd minute , to signal that delivery times 

          is almost over , and two knocks at the 4^th minute.

8   8.  Every debate shall be judged by an odd number of judges shall decide who wins the debate

9   9. In Indonesiana , every team is given 30 minutes preparation time after the motion is

        realeased and before the debate begins . During this preparation time, teams are not allowed to get help from anybody, (laptop, or any other communication device).

Motion is also known as topics, are full propositional statements that determine what a debate shall be about. In the debate, the goverment/affirmative team must argue to defend the motion while the opposition/negative team must argue to opposite.

Here are the examples of motions :

a.       That gambling of all forms should be illegal

b.      The house believe that advertising brings more harm than good.

c.       The house would legalize performance-enhancing drugs

d.      The house believe that low cost green car will be stopped.

           Motion must cover various areas: politics, economy, and social. 

Definition, for a debate to proceed, both teams need a clear understanding of what the motion means.This requires the motion to be defined so that every one( audience and judges included) knows what is being debated. Problem arise if the two teams present different understandings of the meaning of the motion.This can result in a definition and debate, where the focus of the debate becomes the meaning of the words in the motion, rather than the motion itself . interaction and clash between the two teams become concentrated on whose definition is correct, rather than the issues raised by the motion. Definition debates should be avoided wherever possible. They make a mockery of what debating to achieve.

Arguments, after agreeing with a definition, both the government/affirmative and the opposition/negative  team should give argument on why they support or disapprove with the topic.

Arguments explain why a point of view should be accepted. Good arguments are logical and relevant to the point being proven. They should also comprise of :

1. Assertion – the statement that should be prove.

2. Reasoning – The reason why the statement is logical

3. Evidence – examples/data that support the assertion and reasoning above

4, Link Back- The explanation of the relevance of this argumentto the motion.

Given the duration of debate, it is best to have 2 to 4 argument to support your point of view. These arguments should be devided between the 1^st and the 2 ^nd speaker. So,some arguments are explained by the 1^st speaker and the rest are explained by the 2^nd speaker. This division is called a team split.

Rebuttals are responses toward the other teams’s argument. Rebuttals should prove that the other teams arguments are not as important as they   claim to be.

The reply speakers sum up the debate. They are not allowed to bring new arguments and rebuttals at all. They should simply analyze what has happened in the debate and explain why  their team’s case is better than other team.

Have a nice and happy debate !! good luck…….             

Resource , Debating handbook, Depdiknas,Dirjen ,2009.

 Note :

 A writer is one of a member of Banten English Foundation and She is now an English Teacher in SMAN 4 Pandeglang

Her Address :

Kp. Cikeutar  RT 01 RW 03  Ds. Cipicung  Kec. Cikedal  Kab. Pandeglang-Banten

(HP : 081283887186)