Debates, typically associated with politics and legislation, are carried out to consider and discuss matters that need to be resolved. In a debate, participants argue from opposing standpoints, sometimes in the presence of an audience. In educational contexts, debating often takes the form of a contest to engage teams in competition against each other, winners being selected on the basis of a set of criteria (DAV). As debating can be a stimulating real-life activity, higher education language students can profit from debate-based classes. Involving students in this type of spoken interaction activity allows for the integration of all language skills. It can also be beneficial for developing students’ higher-order thinking (synthesizing, analysing, reasoning, comprehending, application, and evaluation) (ThoughtCo.). THIS STUDY conducted by Karen McRae shows that, although initially challenging, debating can be enjoyable, engaging and fulfilling for the students, leading to improvement in their competences. In this post I share a full lesson sequence and the materials for a speaking class, adopting genre-based instruction (see chapter 10 in THIS book). I used competitive debating to develop English speaking skills among English Studies students in Poland. *** First, in Moodle, I created the tasks for the whole class and I collected online materials. Then, I used this content to teach a 90-minute class. I conducted this class when face-to-face was possible; today I would do it fully online, using Microsoft Teams. And I would call it “Virtual Debating” :) Phase One. Building the context Task 1. Students work in twos or threes and answer the questions:
Task 2. Debating. You will take part in a debate. The matter to be resolved: Facebook is bad for communicating and developing relationships. (You can read THIS post on why I selected the topic related to digital citizenship.) Team 1: you support the thesis, prepare your arguments, Team 2: you are against the thesis, prepare your arguments. Each team will have 2 minutes at a time to comment their opponent's turn and argue their point of view. You can include arguments concerning:
Assessment criteria (scoring: 1=poor, 6=excellent) As a debater, how well can you:
Procedure 1. In teams of 3, students prepare their arguments and take notes (3 minutes) 2. Students take part in the debate in three rounds (17 minutes) 3. Students, in their teams, assess their own and peers’ performance, using the assessment criteria above.
Phase 2. Modelling and deconstructing the text Task. 1. Students are made better familiar with the structure of a turn in a debate: Part 1 – Opening
or: Part 1 - introduction/opening - saying what you will talk about, Part 2 - main body Part 3 - conclusion - say what you have talked about. Source: Rusinek, M. & Załazińska, A. (2018). Jak się dogadać czyli retoryka codzienna. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Znak, pp. 161-185. Task 2. Model analysis 1. Students watch THIS extract from “The Great Debaters” [1:43:15 - 1:55:15] and note their answers:
Task 3. Vocabulary development. Unit 38. Presenting an argument. Academic Vocabulary in Use, Michael McCarthy & Felicity O'Dell, Cambridge University Press . Phase 3. Joint construction Reflection. How would you modify the turns in the debate you took part in at the beginning of this class? Think, take notes and talk to your partner(s). Phase 4. Independent construction of the text You will take part in a new debate. Resolve: Teenagers should be banned from editing, posting, and commenting on photos online. Team 1: you are in favour of the thesis, think of your arguments, Team 2: you are against the thesis, think of your arguments. The procedure is the same as in Phase One Task 2. Phase 5. Linking to related texts Students are asked to answer these two questions: 1. How is debating similar/different from talks/presentations (discussed last class)? 2. How is debating similar/different from discussions (to be discussed next class)? Additional resources
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Higher education students, just like everybody else, need to be able to safely, critically, creatively and productively take part in a digital society. Language instructors can help their students become digital citizens by including content related to, among others, digital literacy, digital footprint, copyright and intellectual property respect, health and wellness, security and privacy (Digital Citizenship Conversations) in the coursework. In so doing, while developing foreign/second language skills, they can prepare their students for life and work in a digital society.
As to pedagogy, teaching digital citizenship can be implemented in a higher education language classroom by using technology-enhanced task-based language teaching (TBLT) (see chapter 9 in THIS book). In this approach, we focus on a real-world task (that is real communication, authentic communicative situations), not a grammar point or a lexical area. Language is a communication instrument which enables task completion. Students are exposed to language (input) and use their language resources to execute the task at hand (language output, production). What is important, students have an opportunity to understand what they (don’t) know and become more aware of their learning needs. The instructional cycle consists of three stages:
Description of the TBLT speaking activity. I applied this approach in my speaking course for English Studies students (as part of their “practical English” programme). By engaging them with the tasks on digital citizenship, I aimed to develop both their content knowledge (see THIS post on the importance of developing students content knowledge for speaking) and their English speaking skills. I targeted these specific skill areas:
As part of their obligatory coursework, out-of-class, throughout the whole semester, the students did research on an assigned topic, recorded and shared their 3-minute talks using the SoundCloud application (HERE is more about this online oral production activity). Instructions for each task were published on Moodle and included the following elements:
The TBLT sequence. At the pre-task stage, the students were provided with the topic, the websites that they could use to learn about the topic, as well a list of aspects that could be considered in the podcast. At the task stage, the students recorded their podcasts using the SoundCloud application and submitted the recording online. Finally, at the post-task stage, the students got feedback from peers: they accessed podcasts online, listened to them and gave feedback with reference to the provided criteria. After that, each student received individual feedback from me through the Moodle messenger. A sample task. Topic: Managing digital footprint on the Internet. Aim: to persuade people to take more care when it comes to their online reputation. Audience: your group. Duration: 3 minutes. Submit HERE [the link]. In order to record the podcast, you can consider:
Browse these resources to get more information: Your podcast will be assessed using these criteria: 1) How effective was the speaker?
Sample feedback on student podcasts. The students could score the maximum of 6 points for each criterion. |
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