English Debate Course for Advanced Students

We have thought of presenting in this article an English debate course for advanced level
students, those who would like to obtain the CAE diploma, since the course is devised to help
them improve speaking skills, logical thinking and a good organization of ideas.

While the idea of debate courses/clubs is far from new, what my colleague Mrs. Selyem Tünde
and I offer is a little different from usual. In our “János Zsigmond” Unitarian High School we
started a debate club that is designed to help students prepare for the CAE and other exams’ oral
examinations, practicing fluency, the preparation of a speech etc, while still keeping many of the
original parts of the classic debate format.

The format of the debate is based on the regular Karl Popper design: teams of three students are
to be formed, each with a specific task in their own teams, affirming or negating a given topic.
The biggest problem we encountered in introducing this format to students was time. A regular
Karl Popper debate needs a time interval of about 1.5 hours to complete efficiently. However, we
have thought about fitting it into the regular time period of a usual class: 50 minutes. This way
the debate could be used as an optional course.

The regular Karl Popper debate format allots approximately 5 minutes to each speaker, plus two
sets of questions in between, each taking up even more time. Naturally, the speeches have to also
be developed beforehand, still increasing the time needed to set up the debate. For this purpose,
our personalized debate format cuts off the question stages of the debates and works with 4-
minute speeches. For the debate to still be heated and attractive, each speaker has to write up the
others’ main ideas and think on the spot about ways to rebut them.

The pattern of the debate is as follows: Affirmative 1 draws up three arguments in favour of their
given topic, developing them in a 4-minute speech. Then Negative 1 will state his/her counter-
arguments in a similar speech, also giving counter-arguments against Affirmative 1’s statements.
Next follows the round of Affirmative and Negative 2, each in turn will serve up examples for
their team’s arguments, and counter-examples against the opposing team. Then in the last round
Affirmative 3 and Negative 3 sum up what has been heard and draw conclusions, trying to prove
that their respective teams have won the debate.
The debate course we started gives listeners the opportunity to actually take part in a live debate
as parts of an affirmative or negative team, and experience firsthand the opportunities given to
students by such a debate/speaking practice. We will endeavour to draw more schools into the
topic of debating, and maybe start a debate competition among the high schools willing to
participate. For any details, please do not hesitate to contact us on the address of our school.

Vorzsák Milán
Selyem Tünde