The Structure of Debate

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, 2009.

Student Debates

by: Daniel Krieger, shinyfruit@yahoo.com, Siebold University of Nagasaki (Nagasaki, Japan)

from: The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 2, February 2005
http://iteslj.org/

One: Introduction to Debate

1. Basic Terms

• Debate: a game in which two opposing teams make speeches to support their arguments and disagree with those of the other team.
• Resolution: the opinion about which two teams argue.
• Affirmative team: agrees with the resolution.
• Negative team: disagrees with the resolution.
• Rebuttal: explains why one team disagrees with the other team.
• Judge(s): decide the winner.

2. Opinions and Reasons

• A resolution is an opinion about which there can be valid disagreement. The students either agree or disagree with the resolution regardless of what they personally believe. An opinion can be introduced by an opinion indicator:
• "I think/believe that smoking should be banned in public places..."

• A reason explains why that opinion is held and can be introduced by a reason indicator:
• "...because/since secondhand smoke is harmful for nonsmokers."

3. Strong Reasons Versus Weak Reasons:

• According to LeBeau, Harrington, Lubetsky (2000), a strong reason has the following qualities:
• It logically supports the opinion.
• It is specific and states the idea clearly.
• It is convincing to a majority of people.

• To give examples of strong reasons versus weak reasons, a multiple-choice exercise: 
• Smoking should be banned in public places because: a. it is bad,  b. it gives people bad breath and makes their teeth yellow, or c. secondhand smoke is harmful for nonsmokers.

• Explain why some of the above reasons are strong and others are weak based on the above criteria.

• In pairs, practice generating reasons for opinions. The resolutions/opinions should be generated by you (as the four resolutions listed below) or taken from the following online debate resource, which offers resolutions, reasons and debating tips:
• http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Teach/English-debate.html

Part 1: With Your Partner, Think of at Least One Strong Reason for Each Resolution

1. Women should quit their job after they get married.
REASON:

2. Love is more important than money.
REASON:

3. It is better to be married than single.
REASON:

4. Writing by hand is better than writing by computer.
REASON:

Part 2: Now Compare Your Reasons with Another Pair and Decide Whose Reasons are Stronger and Why

4. Ways to State Reasons: Review of Language

• Comparison: X is _____ er than Y. OR: X is more _____ than Y.

• Cause-and-effect: X causes Y. OR: If you do X, then Y will happen.

5. Generating Resolutions: Generate Your Own Resolutions

• Issues about which people are likely to disagree work best for debate. They can be controversial: The death penalty should be banned; or less divisive: Love is more important than money.

• Brainstorm a list of resolutions. Get your ideas from topics discussed or read about in class, or topics which interest you personally. Hand in your list of resolutions and the teacher will select the most suitable ones. You can  choose from these later.

Two: Supporting Your Opinion

1. Warm-up

Begin with a fun practice activity which generates reasons for opinions. An argumentation exercise called "The Devil's Advocate" (see appendix 1) is useful for this purpose and can be used multiple times simply by changing the resolutions. Another good kind of activity for giving reasons is any prioritization task in which you rank items on a list, giving reasons for their choices.

2. Giving Support for Your Reasons

Support consists of evidence. The four kinds of evidence, adapted from LeBeau, Harrington, Lubetsky (2000), are:

• Example: from your own experience or from what you heard or read.
• Common Sense: things that you believe everybody knows.
• Expert Opinion: the opinions of experts -- this comes from research.
• Statistics and Facts: numbers and data -- these also come from research.

Resolution: Smoking should be banned in all public places.

Example: "For example / for instance / let me give an example"

Whenever I go to a restaurant or bar and there are people smoking near me, I feel that I am breathing their smoke. This makes me a smoker even though I don't want to be.

Common Sense: Everyone knows / if...then / it's common knowledge that Secondhand smoke is very unhealthy for nonsmokers.

Statistics: Secondhand smoke causes about 250,000 respiratory infections in infants and children every year, resulting in about 15,000 hospitalizations each year.

Expert Opinion: According to.../ to quote.../ the book _____ says...

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers each year."

3. Practice

Here, you practice making examples/common sense support. You  can develop these from reasons that you came up with in the prior class (third activity).

Three: Debate Structure

1. Warm-up

Do argumentation exercise (see Class Two warm up).

2. Form Teams

Two or three students form a team.

3. Considering Resolutions

Give each team the resolutions chosen by the teacher from the ones generated by the students. Instruct students to mark the resolutions which interest them.

4. Selecting Resolutions and Sides

Pair up two teams and have them compare their lists and decide on a resolution for their debate. They then pick sides-affirmative or negative.

5. Formal Debate Structure

(See Appendix 2 for an additional format option developed for a less formal, more conversational "impromptu" debate.)

Speech 1: The first affirmative speaker introduces the topic and states the affirmative team's first argument.

Speech 2: The first negative speaker states their first argument.

Speech 3: The second affirmative speaker states their second argument.

Speech 4: The second negative speaker states their second argument.

Give a 5-10 minute break for each team to prepare their rebuttal speech.

Speech 5: The negative team states two rebuttals for the affirmative team's two arguments and summarizes their own two reasons.

Speech 6: The affirmative team states two rebuttals for the negative team's two arguments and summarizes their own two reasons.

6. Brainstorming Arguments

Each argument consists of a stated reason followed by ample support. Debaters brainstorm reasons for their resolution and then select the best two. These will be used for their arguments. Model brainstorming on the board with a simple resolution to demonstrate how the brainstorming process works.

7. Homework

Complete two arguments. Note: it is not acceptable to write the arguments in L1 and then translate into English. Arguments should be written in clear and simple English that can be easily understood by all other students.

Four: Predicting and Refuting the Other Team's Arguments

1. Warm-up

Do argumentation exercise (see class two warm up).

2. Predicting the Other Team's Arguments

Each team brainstorms a list of strong reasons that their opponents could use.

3. Four Step Rebuttal

• STEP 1: "They say ..."
• State the argument that you are about to refute so that the judges can follow easily. Take notes during your opponent's speeches so you will be clear about what they argued.
• "The other team said that smoking is harmful for nonsmokers."

• STEP 2: "But I disagree..." Or "That may be true, but..."
• "That may be true, but I think that if nonsmokers want to avoid cigarette smoke, they can walk away from it."

• STEP 3: "Because ..."
• "Because nonsmokers should look out for their own health."

• STEP 4: "Therefore..."
• "Therefore it is not the responsibility of smokers to protect nonsmokers."

4. Writing Rebuttals

Debaters compose short rebuttals for the opposing team's strongest three arguments that the team predicted during preparation.

5. Giving Feedback

The teacher meets with each group and reviews their arguments and rebuttals, challenging students to question their reasoning.

Five: Judging and Final Practice

1. Warm-up

Do argumentation exercise (see class 2 warm up).

2. Judging

Students are the judges. In the judging form below, students must show evidence that they have listened carefully. The teacher then evaluates the judging forms.

Speech 1: The Affirmative Team's First Argument
Note: the same format is used for speech 1-4

Summarize the REASON here:

Is this reason clear? ____/1　Is this reason strong? 　 ____/1

Summarize the SUPPORT here:

Is the support clear?　 ____/1　 Good examples/common sense: ____/1

Expert opinion/statistics: ____/1

Speech 5:　The Negative Team's Rebuttal
Note: the same format is used for speech 5-6 (four rebuttals)

REBUTTAL for the first argument:　
They disagree because...

Therefore...

Is this rebuttal clear? ____/1　

Did you use a strong "because" and "therefore"? ____/1

3. Judging Practice

For practice in judging, the teacher performs speeches of a mock debate. Students listen, fill in the form, and then compare results.

4. Final Practice

The students practice delivering their argument speeches, and then, doing rebuttals against their own arguments.

Six: The Debate

• During the debate: the students fill in the judging form during the debate and can consult with a partner for help with clarification after each debate.
• Following the debate: the students submit judging forms, and the teacher adds up the scores and announces the winners.
• Also, students hand in their argument and rebuttal speeches for which the teacher provides feedback on strong points and things to work on. For an example of a student's debate speech from my class, see Appendix 3.

Appendix 1: The Devil's Advocate

• You have two minutes to argue one side of each resolution. When you hear "SWITCH," you will have two minutes to argue the opposite side of the resolution.
• Then move on to the next one.

1. All Chinese writing should be in Roman letters.
2. It is better to be single than married.
3. Women should stop working when they get married and have babies.
4. Women should not change their family name when they get married.

Appendix 2: Format for Interactive Debate

Seating Arrangement: students facing each other. Two or three students per team.

1. Affirmative team: Argument 1
2. Negative team's Rebuttal
3. Affirmative team's response to rebuttal and open discussion
4. Negative team: Argument 1
5. Affirmative team's Rebuttal
6. Negative team's Response to rebuttal and open discussion
7. Affirmative team: Argument 2
8. Negative team's Rebuttal
9. Affirmative team's Response to rebuttal and Open Discussion
10. Negative team: Argument 2
11. Affirmative team's Rebuttal
12. Negative team's Response to rebuttal and open discussion
13. Affirmative team's Closing comments
14. Negative team's Closing comments

Appendix 3: A Sample Student's Debate Speech (edited)

• Resolution: Personality is more important than looks. (Affirmative argument)
• Reason: People never lose interest in looking at a person who has a
  good personality and living with them always makes us feel pleasant.
• Support:
• Example
• For example, my friendly neighbor in China has twin brothers. The elder brother married a very beautiful girl. But after the first month, he had a quarrel with her because the beautiful wife spent all of her time dressing herself up without doing any housework. And she always went out on dates with many boyfriends. Finally he divorced his beautiful wife last year. But the younger brother who married an ordinary looking girl with a good personality has a very happy married life now and they have a lovely 3 year old baby now.
• Common sense
• In China it is said, "Don't choose beautiful person to be your wife." Because the beautiful wife spends more time dressing herself up without doing housework or child care than the not beautiful wife. And the beautiful wife always spends a lot of money on clothing and cosmetics.
• Expert opinion & Statistics
• Psychologists at Yale University investigated 3,519 married men's life spans. According to the report, the men who married a beautiful wife had a shorter life than the men who married an not beautiful wife. The degree of beauty was in direct proportion to the husbands' life-spans. In the study, there was a scale of 1-20 points: 20 points is the most beautiful wife and 1 point the least beautiful wife. The result was that men who had a wife who scored 1-12 points lived 12 years longer than men whose wife scored 13-20 points.

References

• Davidson, Bruce (1995) Critical thinking education faces the challenge of Japan. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines. XIV (3)
• Fukuda, Shinji (2003) Attitudes toward argumentation in college EFL classes in Japan. Proceedings of the First Asia TEFL International Conference. Pusan, Korea. pp. 417-418
• LeBeau, Charles & Harrington, David & Lubetsky, Michael (2000) Discover debate: basic skills for supporting and refuting opinions. Language Solutions
• Nesbett, Richard E. (2003) The geography of thought. The Free Press