SHIRAK STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND ARTS

TERM PAPER

DEBATING SKILLS AS A TOOL OF TEACHING ENGLISH

FOURTH YEAR

STUDENT: LUSINE HARUTYUNYAN

SUPERVISOR:NARA DAVTYAN

GYUMRI 2020

1
 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………3

CHAPTER 1 DEBATES AS AN EFFICIENT MEANS OF INTERACTIVE TEACHING

1.1 The use of classroom debate……………………………………………….……….4
1.2 Debate in the Context of General Education…………………………………...……6
CHAPTER 2 THE PROCESS OF DEBATING AND ITS BENEFITS IN TEACHING…9

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………19

REFERNCES………………………………………………………………………………..21

2
 INTRODUCTION

This paper deals with the analysis of DEBATING SKILLS AS A TOOL OF

TEACHING ENGLISH . Classroom debate is an effective learning strategy particularly because it
promotes student-student interactions. Obviously, active learning cultivates the potential to
enhance critical and creative thinking as well as communication skills and problem-solving skills;
as a result, learners benefit much when teachers make use of educational techniques that
encourage students’ active involvement.
The aim of the work is to present benefits of using debates in teaching.

The objectives of the research are:

 to study debates in interactive teaching

 to study importance of debate in teaching
 to analyze different approaches to debates

.The research paper consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion and references.

Introduction shows the aim of the investigation and gives the short description of the
paper.

Chapter 1 Debates as an efficient means of interactive teaching deals with the study
of debates in teaching

Chapter 2 The Process of Debating and Its Benefits in Teaching is dedicated to

describing the process and the general approach to debates as a study tool, also its benefits in
teaching.

Conclusion summarizes the achieved results.

References, where the sources used are given.

3
 CHAPTER 1

DEBATES AS AN EFFICIENT MEANS OF INTERACTIVE TEACHING

1.1 The use of classroom debate

Protagoras is known to be the father of debate for implementing it in an educational

environment over 2400 years ago in Athens, Greece (Darby, 2007). Debate was first
incorporated in American higher education in the 19th through 20th century, but did lose its
popularity till 1980s as a teaching/learning instrument (Redding, D.A., 2001). However, it
became popular again in the United States and has been practiced over the last three decades. It
has been providing a good educational experience for students in high schools and universities
(Williams, D, 2001). The use of classroom debate has been expanded to students in all subject
areas, regardless of their academic level. Through debate, students learn how to use the library,
to reason, to analyze, to clarify ideas and to present arguments (C. Wang 2009). Debaters
consistently value and highly rate the development of speaking skills, communication skills and
critical thinking skills (Hall, D., 2011). Advocates of debate across curriculum in the United
States argue that higher education system has generally failed to equip their students with
fundamental oral communication skills (Donofrio, H.H., 1997).
The Centre on Organization and Restructuring of Schools conducted an extensive
research study (Newmann, F.M., 1995) which concluded that academic success can be assessed
acceptable only when learners are asked to “express the results of their disciplined inquiry in
written, symbolic, oral discourse and in performances for audiences” (Earlier studies suggested
that for the past decade or so, a great deal of cognitive experts have shifted focus to educational
practices and learning. The studies they have done have reached the similar results which is now
commonly classified under the umbrella of ‘constructivism’. Based on what has been reported in
the literature, the main principle of constructivism advocates that learning and education entails
the active building of knowledge (Bransford, J.D., 1989). Instructors and textbooks definitely can
offer assistance which is beneficial for building new understanding and knowledge, yet the very
memorization of knowledge can not result in successful learning. Studies suggest that information
and facts that are only memorized will stay passive even if they are pertinent to new conditions.
The results obtained from cognitive studies suggest that flourishing classrooms involves
interactive learning. Moreover, these studies indicate that learning diminishes when students are

4
forced into passive roles and practices. In order to get the students more active and involved in
learning process, they need to be provided an opportunity to communicate verbally.
Those who advocate the use of debate across curriculum believe that the debate approach
provides students with superior access to the content of any given subject. Research findings
(Corson, D., 1988) illustrate oral skills practices as “a personal contribution that we make to the
development of our own analytic competence”. When learners are supported to think aloud,
particularly, when they perform critical skills with classmates, they expand their experience which
might then be applied to their own internal reasoning procedures. The use of language orally
constructs skills and knowledge which are more relevant to critical thinking than smooth verbal
presentation.
Debate has been used in educational settings to present benefits to learners from different
backgrounds that learn together in groups. This is clearly reflected in the results of research
(Sharan, S., 1985) in which it is argued that one of the most fundamental and beneficial
characteristics of debate is that people who work together in achieving the same goal will
eventually grow to feel more positive about each other and will be motivated and capable of
having constructive interaction when performing a collective task. Debate promotes interactive
learning. When people from different cultures cooperate to resolve an issue, they are more likely
to come up with innovative ways of dealing with the problems. Today, with the development of
internet and computer technology, autonomy and different perspectives, debate technique can
empower learners even more (Warschauer, M., 2000). Moreover, it can promote social activities
that extend beyond classroom activities. It has the potential to enhance critical and creative
thinking as well as reasoning, communication skills and problem-solving skills.
It has been noted (Johnson, D.W., 1994, p. 38) that, compared with individualistic and
competitive learning, the collaborative approach to learning appears to result in “higher level
reasoning, more frequent generation of new ideas and solutions and a greater transfer of what is
learned within one situation to another”. Previous research studies added some other significant
research findings about learning through debate and interactive learning environment (Park, C.,
2011). The results of these studies suggest that, compared with students who do not utilize debate
and interactive learning, (1) students who learn cooperatively show more academic improvement
comparing those learning through competitive and individualistic learning styles; (2) interactive
learning enhance learners’ short-term and long-term memory and also critical thinking skills; (3)
cooperative experiences promote positive self-acceptance, which means students’ learning, self-
esteem, liking of school and motivation will be improved; (4) it results in constructive
communication among learners and, (5) promoted academic ambitions, demonstrating more

5
positive social activities and more constructive communication among students will be developed
through interactive and cooperative learning environment. To summarize, debate encourages
students to learn the course content better, since they are engaged in the course content actively,
broadly, deeply and personally. It also trains them to assess the data they get on a daily basis. In
addition, debate provides a valuable opportunity to develop learners’ speaking ability.

1.2 Debate in the Context of General Education

Findings of an earlier study suggest that debate preparation is a beneficial small group
task, in which every student noticeably benefits from the same inputs of their classmates.
Furthermore, the results indicated that classroom debate exercises appear to be an outstanding
method of incorporating group work into subjects and courses. An action research was conducted
among undergraduate students majoring political science to examine the influences of classroom
debate on the development of learners’ critical thinking skills and understanding of complex
political issues (Omelicheva, M.Y., 2007).
Classroom debates helped the learners get involved in the intellectual practices which
illustrate critical thinking skills. The academic debate can be incorporated with the courses of
college and university students to promote a variety of effective, intellectual and practical skills,
which include critical thinking skills, deeper comprehension of the issues being debated,
communication and teamwork skills. Furthermore, studies find it effective and helpful to address
this criticism and resolve this issue through post-debate synthesis or discussion. Moreover, some
students raised issues regarding the students’ performance assessment of the subject and their final
score and its association with the load of classroom participation and some learners also expressed
discomfort to different features of the format of the debates, while liking the exercise in general.
Developing thinking skills and positive behaviour, like showing interest in social issues,
tolerating multiple viewpoints and accepting the fact that people are free to think in a different
way should be the emphasis of debates and should be set for the achievement of these goals
through debate exercises. Finally, in helping our students acquire and promote cognitive skills, we
need to be patient and should not expect big changes and transformations in a short period of time.
No teaching methods and learning tools can change students into critical thinkers overnight as,
like any other skills, these skills are also developed throughout the lifetime. However, practising
these skills can make fundamental changes. Participating in educational exercises, developed to

6
improve and promote thinking skills, is a significant and helpful step towards mastering these
skills (Omelicheva, M.Y., 2007).
However, this confrontational feature of classroom debate is viewed by some other
scholars as a privilege rather than a weakness. For instance, it is argued that participating in
classroom debate strengthens learners’ capability to handle disagreements outside of classroom as
well [26]. Opponents also claim that taking part in a debate simply highlights the participants’
current set of beliefs and does not help promote a rational analysis of the debated issue. On the
other hand, it has been reported that the only time students managed to change their positions and
accept alternative viewpoint was only when they were involved in a debate or a role-play
(Simonneaux, L., 2001). Moreover, “It is important that the format of the exercise encourages
students to consider the opposite (Budesheim, T., 2000, p.110). Only then are students likely to be
more open to new perspectives and spend less time reinforcing old beliefs”.
Debate in ELT Context: It is commonly recognized that language learning happens more
successfully when it occurs in a meaningful, authentic and supportive context. Research studies
suggest that classroom debate offers opportunities for students to negotiate meanings and it allows
them to have more access to linguistic input and output, both conditions that promote effective
language learning (Kennedy, R., 2007). In recognition of such thinking, learning through
interactive and cooperative approaches like classroom debate is a major feature of communicative
language teaching (Jacobs, G.M., 2003). Studies describe debate as a very complicated type of
direct communicative interaction in which high-level discourse skills are applied. Debating entails
a complex process of discussion in which the regular and usual level of conversation is passed
beyond, requires the debater to listen to the speaker critically and actively and calls for
sophisticated linguistic competency and critical thinking skills as well.
Although using classroom debate as a teaching/learning tool carries its own challenges,
limitations and opponents, a lot of researchers, scholars and instructors still support it (Krieger, D.,
2005). For example, it is reported that debate can be a very helpful tool for learning a
second/foreign language since it “engages students in a variety of cognitive and linguistic ways”.
It is a clear fact that debate has the potential to improve speaking ability, since the activity requires
a lot of speaking practices and verbal discussions among debaters. Moreover, it can promote and
foster efficient and successful listening, reading and also writing. Because students need to do in
advance research on the topic which they are going to debate, they need to use skills such as
scanning, skimming and critical reading so that they can selectively choose the relevant and useful
evidence and reliable references to supports their claims and arguments. Participating in real
debate necessitates critical and careful listening, since every side needs to listen carefully to the

7
opposite group’s cases and put together and prepare rebuttals. In addition, the writing skills will be
improved, since debaters need to take notes and write down convincing, challenging speeches. It is
also argued that debate has the potential to promote and cultivate necessary skills for debate
discussion and convincing argumentation. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, debate is known for
having the capacity to promote the skills of critical thinking which include synthesis, analysis and
evaluation, since these skills are crucial constituents in formulating the rebuttals. According to the
results of the study (Nisbett, R., 2003, p.210), debate plays a significance role in facilitating
“analytic thinking skills and self-conscious reflection on the validity of one’s ideas”. Another
study suggests that a lot of learners demonstrate observable improvement in terms of their
capability to articulate and support viewpoints and identify the weaknesses in each other’s
arguments. In a study (Fukuda, S., 2003), the researcher has employed classroom debate among
his students in Japan, witnessed and reported a noticeable raise in the number of learners that
could express their points of view more comfortably which were different from those of others.
The researcher claims that this improvement is the result of the skills and knowledge, which
originated from debates participation and practices, led the students to get used to expressing
opinions.

8
 CHAPTER 2
THE PROCESS OF DEBATING AND ITS BENEFITS IN TEACHING
The purpose of debating is to succinctly express yourself in a way that is clear to those
around you, using arguments that are persuasive. It aims to help you refine and hone your
arguments so they are acceptable to those listening. It also aims to pick holes in your theories and
point out your inconsistencies so you eventually develop a more well-rounded argument that is
persuasive to listeners.
Debate is a great device for engaging students and bringing life to the classroom. Using
debates in the classroom can help students understand essential critical thinking and presentation
skills. Classroom debates can nurture rational thinking, citizenship, manners, organization of
thoughts, persuasion and public speaking. Student debate has the capability to deeply engage the
students in relevant learning and to inspire students to be deep thinkers. More than just arguing,
the structure and rules of a debate are designed to keep both sides calm. A good teacher will also
avoid over-debated subjects that stimulate philosophical bias and make the debate topics relevant
to the content that has been learned by students. When accomplished, classroom debates will
engage students that normally do not participate in class.
Class debates give students the opportunity to test their thoughts and views against that of
their peers. It is important to set the right tone for discussion in the classroom early in the semester
to establish a rapport with students. Studies have shown that students who contribute to class
conversations early are much more likely to continue contributing to class discussions later on.
Therefore, it is vital to find ways to involve all students in the classroom debates.
It is not enough for schools just to teach knowledge, knowledge is the base of great thinking, but
without the practice of using knowledge to challenge and rise to the occasion when challenged, an
academic education falters. Argument is a key to thinking well.

Classroom Debate Ideas

The following ideas provide a great starting point for using debates in the classroom:

Fairy Tales. Fairy tales challenge students to think about honesty and ethics.
Four Corners Debate. A debate strategy gets kids thinking and moving
Inner circle- outer circle. This debate strategy emphasizes listening to other’s views and writing
an opinion essay.

9
Role-play debat. Students assume the roles of various stakeholders in debates on issues of high
interest.
Features of a good debate: A good debate is like art. It may be hard to describe it, but you’ll know
it when you hear it.

Here are 5 traits of a good debate:

Convenience: Students feel comfortable engaging in the debate.

Non-combative: A pleasant and pleasurable tone to the discussion with no hostility.
Diverse: An assortment of opinions and points of view get verbalised.
Unity and focus: Discussions should have a pedagogical goal.
Trust: An environment that allows students to take intellectual risks.

Features of a bad debate:

Limited participants: Only few students participate.
Restricted viewpoints: Students echo instructor’s thoughts that limit diversity of opinions.

Lack of focus: Debates go off-topic and miss the academic aim.

The benefits of debating

1. Improved critical thinking skills

2. Acquire better poise, speech delivery, and public speaking skills
3. Increased student retention of information learned
4. Improved listening and note-taking skills
5. Increased self-confidence
6. Enhance teamwork skills and collaboration
7. More confidence to stand up for the truth when a discussion is promoting falsehoods or
inaccuracies
8. Learning better ways to graciously state one’s point with gentleness
9. Help students identify holes in their theories and concoct more balanced arguments
10. Help students to better structure their thoughts
11. Debating is lots of fun!

10
 1. Improved Critical Thinking Skills

The importance of debate in education is its ability to teach children critical thinking. In a
world where children are spoon-fed information in a passive way, critical thinking is lacking as
learning is no longer interest-based. However, debating can sharpen student’s critical thinking
skills and let them examine the topic they’ve been given. Instead of passively accepting
information, they’re forced to hone that material and throw out concepts and theories that don’t
make sense and adopt the ones that do. It helps them to question beliefs they hold and justify why
they think in a certain way.

2. Acquire Better Poise, Speech Delivery, and Public Speaking Skills

When debating, you learn to have confidence in the things you’re saying as you’ve
prepared well for your topic and know it. As such, you learn to hold yourself well with poise.
After you’ve debated for a while you also learn to deliver your speech confidently in a persuasive
manner. Having better poise and speech delivery means your public speaking skills will be greatly
improved. This is because bad public speaking is often largely a result of poor topic preparation
and practice. Poor preparation and practice also mean you will be more likely to get nervous as
you’re more likely to fail because you’re not prepared. (It’s a vicious circle!)

3. Increased Student Retention of Information Learned

In comparison with traditional education, debating can massively increase the learners’
retention of the topics studied as it is active, interest-based learning that engages the mind
thoroughly. Subjects that make students actively learn help to increase information retention.
Therefore, debating helps students to remember what they’ve learned for a longer time than
passive learning or rote learning.

4. Improved Listening and Note-taking Skills

One of the other benefits of debating is that it improves students note-taking while
listening to others. When students start, they can struggle to take notes effectively and discern
what the main points are. When you’re new to debating, you might start by trying to frantically
write down large portions of what the opponent is saying. Then you lose track of the main
argument. However, if you’ve been debating for a while, you’ll know how to try to listen for the
main points and try to think how you’re going to defend that point more generally. This teaches

11
you to sift information at the same time as you listen to your opponent. In essence, debating
improves your listening and note-taking skills.

5. Increased Self-confidence

As previously mentioned, knowing your topic helps you to have more confidence when
you’re talking about a subject. If you know what you’re talking about and you’re confident you
have your topics in hand, your self-confidence will naturally increase. This can be really helpful
for teens who can (particularly) struggle with self-esteem in their high school years.

6. Enhance Teamwork Skills and Collaboration

You can really see the importance of debate in education when you see how much
debaters have to naturally collaborate with each other to make a debate go well. Collaboration
isn’t boring when you’re debating. Rather, it’s a lot of fun and when you’re in a team you feel like
you have each other’s back in an argument as you’re on the same team as them. This can lead to
great team bonding and fun collaboration work.

7. More Confidence to Stand up for the Truth when a Discussion is Promoting Falsehoods or
Inaccuracies

The importance of debate in education comes into its own when you step into the real
world. If you’ve studied a lot of controversial topics in detail, you can confidently stand up for the
truth when pushed. We think this is the most important benefit of debating. We want to teach our
children to graciously, but unwaveringly, stand up for the truth when a discussion in their
workplace or family/friend life is promoting falsehoods or inaccuracies. We want them to gently
suggest the falsehood or inaccuracy and then to suggest the truth of the matter and the evidence
they have to support the view they are holding. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t know their
Bible, and they don’t know how to stand up for what they believe (1 Peter 3:15), even though the
Bible offers many answers. Children who learn to debate, on the other hand, can easily learn to
defend their beliefs in a winsome manner – when the truth is on your side, a defense is easy.

8. Learning Better Ways to Graciously State One’s Point with Gentleness

If taught well (and this is the caveat of this point being true), students can learn to state
their point in a winsome manner that is not just intended to ‘win’ the argument but is intended to
also persuade the hearer. This will mean judging whether it is the right time to state certain
information or wait until the recipient is more open to hearing the information. In this way,
debating can also be about reading the emotions on the other person’s face.

12
9. Help Students Identify Holes in their Theories and Concoct More Balanced Arguments

The role of debate is to help us identify bad arguments and refine good arguments. When
we start arguing, we might believe we have a balanced view without any holes. However, putting
our theories on the table to be poked and prodded makes them prove whether they can hold water.
When our theories are tested and found wanting in certain areas, it forces us to refine our theories
and make our arguments more balanced and more easily understandable. This is a really great
benefit of debating that students experience as they actively learn through trial and error.

10. Help Students Better Structure their Thoughts

We can also see the importance of debate in education when we see how much it helps
students structure their thoughts from the bits and pieces they’ve learned throughout their lives to
a more cogent argument as they’re forced to look up new information. In many cases, students
structure their thoughts proficiently by finding one or more reasons for their beliefs. They then
have that belief tested as their opponent stands up and tries to make mincemeat of their argument.
This then forces them to further structure their argument to have rebuttals for the questions and
objections that were put forward in the first round of debate. All up, new debating students learn to
develop a well-rounded viewpoint. Experienced debaters learn to start their arguments already
anticipating their opponent’s objections. This makes for a brilliant debate that is lots of fun…
which leads me to my last point!

11. Debating is Lots of Fun!

We almost forgot to say that the best thing about debating is that it is plenty of fun! It was
a great way to connect with other students and bond with them when they were on your own team.
You also get a great thrill when you’ve done your best on a debate and you’ve made points in a
succinct way (so it doesn’t even matter if you don’t win – so long as you’ve tried, it will be fun.)

The Process of Debating

It is important to understand on how a debate works. The team will be given a topic
which is called a “resolution” and the team will have to decide whether to take the affirmative or
negative stance to the resolution. Whether you will be assigned to a certain stance or asked to
choose, you will have to be ready for every possibility. Then the team must have time to search all
the information they need for proving their side. This is important point using debates as an

13
interactive means of teaching. Pupils work for having success in debate and at the same time they
get a huge amount of knowledge. For example you can give a debate such as <<Whether cell
phones may be used during class>> and affirmative side should bring benefits of phones, in its
turn negative side should bring the harms of cell phones.

In favor of:

•Students should not only be allowed to carry cell phones but encouraged to judiciously use this
wonderful new age technology. They can use their phones to keep updated whether by browsing
news websites or educational portals. A low priced smartphone costs much less than a common
Personal Computer or a laptop hence it would be easily affordable for many parents to give a
smartphone to their children.

•Cell phones give students access to tools and apps that can help them complete and stay on top of
their class work. These tools can also teach students to develop better study habits, like time
management and organization skills.

•Cell phones can give students access to more information, letting them research more about a
topic while having class discussions. This is especially true for current events that have not yet
been covered in school textbooks.

Against:

•Cell phones can be a helpful learning tool in class. But they can also be used by students to access
information while taking a test, leading to cheating. Even if a student isn’t caught, this can lead to
him or her having a poor understanding of the material in the future, and is unfair to students who
studied hard to do well.

•While cell phones can help encourage participation by offering different channels, this can also
lead to less in-person discussion and fewer learning opportunities. Learning to work together with
others is an important part of students’ education, and can be lost with too much dependence on
cell phones and other digital technology.

•Allowing cell phones in schools will give rise to an unhealthy, unwanted competition as students
with expensive and latest model phones will overwhelm those who have got low-cost or old model
phones. Not only would there be disparity within a single group but parents would be under
constant pressure to get new expensive phones for their children.

14
15
16
17
Essentially, a debate is an argument with rules.
Debating rules vary from one competition to another, and there are several possible debate
formats. Debates can involve single-member teams or teams that include several students. In a
standard debate, two teams are presented with a resolution or topic, and each team has a set period
of time to prepare an argument. Students typically don't know their debate subjects ahead of time.
However, participants are encouraged to read about current events and controversial issues to
prepare for debates. This can give teams special strengths in certain topic areas. The goal is to
come up with a good argument in a short amount of time. At a debate, one team argues in favor
(pro) and the other argues in opposition (con). In some debate formats, each team member speaks,
and in others, the team selects one member to speak for the entire team.

A judge or a panel of judges assigns points based on the strength of the arguments and the
professionalism of the teams. One team is usually declared the winner, and that team advances to a
new round. A school team can compete in local, regional, and national tournaments.

A typical debate format includes:

 Teams are advised of the topic and take positions (pro and con).
 Teams discuss their topics and come up with statements expressing their position.
 Teams deliver their statements and offer the main points.
 Teams discuss the opposition's argument and come up with rebuttal
 Teams deliver their rebuttals.
 Teams make their closing statements.

Each of these sessions is timed. For instance, teams may have only three minutes to come up with
their rebuttal. Interested students without a team at their school can look into starting a debate
team or club. Many colleges also offer summer programs that teach debating skills.

18
 CONCLUSION

Due to the given reasons above, as a conclusion, it is evident, that learners make
improvements when teachers make use of techniques that get students involved actively in
learning. Classroom debate is a systematic instructional approach which has the potential to
nurture the active engagement of students. Using classroom debate as a teaching/learning
approach brings many advantages to learners, which include promotion of critical thinking
skills, mastering the course content and improving the speaking abilities. However, classroom
debate carries its own limitations, challenges and even opponents. Classroom debate as an
instructional strategy, discusses its limitations and challenges as well as its benefits to students
in general and ESL/EFL learners in particular. Debate encourages students to learn course
content better, since they are engaged in the course content actively, broadly, deeply and
personally. It also trains them to assess the data they get on a daily basis. In addition, debate
provides a valuable opportunity to develop learners’ speaking ability.
Classroom debate is an effective learning strategy particularly because it promotes
student-student interactions. Obviously, active learning cultivates multifaceted thinking
procedures and develops maintenance, absorption, comprehension and appropriate use of course
content; as a result, learners benefit much when teachers make use of educational techniques
that encourage students’ active involvement.
A reasoned debate allows students to explore and gain understanding of alternative
viewpoints and, for the participants, develops communication, critical thinking and
argumentation skills. The approach is often used in disciplines where practitioners are required
to present and defend particular positions against other parties.
In comparison with traditional education, debating can massively increase learners’
retention of the topics studied as it is active, interest-based learning that engages the mind
thoroughly. Subjects that make students actively learn help to increase information retention.
Therefore, debating helps students to remember what they’ve learned for a longer time than
passive learning or rote learning.
One of the other benefits of debating is that it improves students’ note-taking while
listening to others. When students start, they can struggle to take notes effectively and discern
what the main points are. When you’re new to debating, you might start by trying to frantically
write down large portions of what the opponent is saying. Then you lose track of the main
argument. However, if you’ve been debating for a while, you’ll know how to try to listen for the
main points and try to think how you’re going to defend that point more generally. This teaches

19
you to sift information at the same time as you listen to your opponent. In essence, debating
improves your listening and note-taking skills.
Knowing your topic helps you to have more confidence when you’re talking about a
subject. If you know what you’re talking about and you’re confident you have your topics in
hand, your self-confidence will naturally increase. This can be really helpful for teens who can
(particularly) struggle with self-esteem in their high school years.

20
 REFERENCES
1. Bransford, J.D. and N.J. Vye, Cognitive research and its implications for instruction:
Alexandria, VA: ASCD, (1989).
2. Corson, D., Oral language across the curriculum. Philadelphia: (1988).
3. C. Wang, Debate in the Classroom: An Evaluation of a Critical Thinking Teaching
Technique within a Rehabilitation Counseling Course, (2009).
4. Darby, M. Debate: A teaching-learning strategy for developing competence in
communication and critical thinking. Journal of Dental Hygiene, (2007).
5. Donofrio, H.H., Oral communication across disciplines, (1997).
6. Fukuda, S., Attitudes towards. Argumentation in College EFL Classes in Japan. Pusan,
Korea: (2003).
7. Goodwin, J., Students' perspectives on debate exercises in content area classes. (2003).
8. Hall, D.,Debate: innovative Teaching to Enhance Critical Thinking and Communication
Skills in Healthcare Professionals, (2011).
9. Johnson, D.W. and R.T. Johnson, Learning Together and Alone. Boston: (1994).
10. Jacobs, G.M. and T. Farrell, Understanding and implementing the communicative teaching
paradigm, (2003).
11. Kennedy, R., In-class debates: Fertile ground for active learning and the cultivation of
critical thinking and oral communication skills, (2007).
12. Kennedy, R., The power of in-class debates. Active Learning in Higher Education, (2011).
13. Krieger, D., Teaching debate to ESL students: A six-class unit, (2005).
14. Lee, Wen-Shan, The Effect of Debate on Oral Communication Skills among University
Students in Taiwan. Taiwan: (2005).
15. Newmann, F.M. and G.G. Wehlage, Successful school restructuring: (1995).
16. Nisbett, R., The geography of thought. New York: (2003).

17. Omelicheva, M.Y., Resolved: Academic Debate Should Be a Part of Political Science
Curricula. (2007).
18. Park, C., C. Kier and K. Jugdev, Debate as a Teaching Strategy in Online Education: A Case
Study, (2011).

21
19. Rear, D., A Systematic Approach to Teaching Critical Thinking through Debate, (2010).
20. Redding, D.A., The development of critical thinking among students in Baccalaureate
nursing. (2001).
21. Sharan, S., Cooperative learning and the multiethnic classroom and Richard Schmuck
(Ed.), Learning to Cooperate, Cooperating to learn. New York: Plenum Press: (1985).
22. Simonneaux, L., Role-play or debate to promote students’ argumentation and justification
on an issue in animal transgenesis. (2001).
23. Stewart, T. and Pleisch, G. Developing Academic Language Skills and Fluency through
Debate, (1998).
24. Warschauer, M., Does the Internet bring freedom? Information technology. Education and
Society, (2000).
25. Williams, D., B McGee and D. Worth, University student perceptions of the efficacy of
debate participation: Am empirical investigation, (2001).

INTERNET SOURCES
1. https://howdoihomeschool.com/2019/01/29/benefits-debating-education-importance/

2. http://www.americandebateleague.org/benefits-of-debate.html

3. https://www.theschoolrun.com/how-debating-can-benefit-your-child

22