Debating in english

Debates are wonderful, high-interest activities that add great value to our lessons for Pre-Lower, Lower, Advanced and Proficiency classes. Debates offer students  a change from the norm and allow them to learn and practice new and different learning, life and social skills.

The benefits of Debates for students

There are plenty of advantages for our debaters. Some of these advantages include:

• Practicing public speaking skills. Debates are an opportunity for students to practice public speaking by passionately supporting their point of view. This skill will be important for them in the future, as they will costantly need to use these skills during their studies, and later on in their work field and career.
• Using critical thinking skills in a real world setting. Debates require students to ‘think on their feet’. When one team makes a valid point, the other team needs to be able to marshall their resources and come up with an effective response.
• By having to argue for or against a proposition, students have to dig deeper into a topic and look at it from both sides.
• Using important research skills as they prepare for the debate. Researching information is a learned skill. Further, students will need to learn about ways to judge the validity and accuracy of web resources.

Working together as a team both before and during the debate itself. Having students work together as they research and then perform the debate can help them learn important skills about cooperation and trust.