A Guide to Teaching Discussion and Debate...

Title A Guide to Teaching Discussion and Debate Activities withJapanese Students.

Author(s) Simon Robinson

Citation 沖縄キリスト教学院大学論集 = Okinawa ChristianUniversity Review(14): 79-90

Issue Date 2017-10-16

URL http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12001/22132

Rights 沖縄キリスト教学院大学

沖縄キリスト教学院大学論集第14号（2017）

－ 79 －

A Guide to Teaching Discussion and Debate Activities with Japanese Students.

Simon Robinson

Abstract

Teaching Discussion and Debate in Japanese universities can be difficult because students will often run out of things to say or fail to get emotionally involved with the material. However, over the last ten years of teaching debate I have honed a method that I feel is successful in getting the students engaged in lively debate. In this paper I give a detailed guide to this methodology, providing a rationale for each classroom activity and giving examples of student interactions, of my blackboard layouts, and of student feedback. I hope this paper will help other teachers to make debate a successful classroom activity that both teachers and students look forward to.

１．Introduction Debate is a popular activity in English communication lessons, and because it is a talking activity with a lot of back-and-forth discussion, in theory debate provides an excellent opportunity for students to practice their speaking and listening abilities（ Stewart and Pleisch, 1998 ） whilst simultaneously

examining social and cultural issues（Kluge, 2016）and

developing their critical thinking skills（Harmer, 2015），all in the medium of English.

However, in my early experiences of teaching debate the

discussion activities felt rather stilted: even motivated

students found it difficult to generate the animated to-and-fro

that characterises an energetic and exciting debate activity. Furthermore, from observing debate in other classes（at

university, high school, junior high school, and debate

contests） and talking to teachers, it seems that many share

this difficulty. In part the problem seems to stem from a lack

of good resources that focus on the communicative aspects

of debate - Stewart and Pleish（1998）note that“the

scarce publications on debating for ESL/EFL students...

focus on the format and procedures of the debate event...

［rather than］...developing language fluency”. To

offer some help with this problem, I would like to share my

methodology for teaching debate, which I have found to be

very successful in generating animated

and excited discussion in the way that we teachers hope for.

２．My Teaching Context I developed this methodology through my teaching at three

universities: Okinawa University, Okinawa Christian

University, and Okinawa International University. My

students are usually Japanese nationals（with occasional

international students） who are second, third or fourth year

English majors. They are generally aged 19-22 and although

some have experience abroad（ranging from a week or two

up to a year or two）a majority do not. In terms of ability,

some students can be quite fluent, though many need

scaffolding and thinking time before they can phrase their

thoughts in the way debate requires.

As is normal in the Japanese university context, I teach debate in thirty 90-minute sessions, either over one semester（ meeting twice a week ） or split into two semesters

（meeting once a week），in which case the courses will be

named Discussion and Debate I and Discussion and Debate II.

3.1 The Debate Topics Choosing the topics is one of the most important, and one of the trickiest, parts of teaching debate. The key is that the topics you use should be directly

Simon Robinson：A Guide to Teaching Discussion and Debate Activities with Japanese Students.

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connected to and relevant to the students' lives

（Robinson, 2010, p29）and for each topic you will need to

create a strong opinion that will form the basis for Agree

and Disagree. My basic approach is that I want to throw the

cat amongst the pigeons, because controversy stirs up

strong feelings that help create a spirited debate, though

whilst of course not going so far as to offend or embarrass my students（Teacher’s Guide to Introducing Debate

in the Classroom, 2017），and whilst being careful to

select topics for which there are plenty of points on both

sides. Here are a few of the topics I use:

Topic: Part-time jobs

Relevance to my student's lives: A clear majority of my students work part-time in addition to their studies.

Strong opinion:“Students should be banned from working part-time during semester”

Reason this opinion stirs up strong feelings in my students: They clearly place great value on the income these jobs provide （ for the independance, for their

tuition and student expenses, and for the disposable income）so the idea that they could be banned from

working to allow them to focus on their studies gets them pretty riled up!

Topic: Car society

Relevance to my student's lives: Here in Okinawa nearly all of my students drive to school.

Strong opinion:“Okinawa should become a bicycle society”

Reason this opinion stirs up strong feelings in my students: They take for granted the idea that the car is the only reasonable way to get around, so the idea of everyone riding bicycles strikes them as pretty absurd.

Topic: Alcohol

Relevance to my student's lives: Although not all of my students drink, alcohol plays a large

part in many of the social scenarios my students encounter.

Strong opinion:“Okinawa should have high tax and limited sales hours for alcohol”（to illustrate this I

show this Youtube video about alcohol laws in Norway: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GE3Zk5Ze3rY）

Reason this opinion stirs up strong feelings in my students: Cheap and freely available alcohol is a norm in Okinawan society, so the idea of changing this norm is quite surprising.

Topic: School Relevance to my student's lives: It’s not an

exaggeration to state that school defines my

students’experience of childhood: virtually all of them

went to school and few of them have even met anyone who did not.

Strong opinion:“Children should not be made to go to school－they should be free to play all day, every day”

Reason this opinion stirs up strong feelings in my students: This opinion stands in direct contravention to all of my students' assumptions about schooling, learning, and childhood.

In presenting topics such as these, that are both connected

to my students' lives and challenging to their assumptions,

I am engaging in Critical Pedagogy, an educational

approach which uses the classroom as an opportunity to

critically examine society with a view to reform（En.wikiversity.org, 2017）．I wish to emphasize that for

debate to work as a classroom activity, it needs to address

real issues in the students’lives in a real and critical way.

Because relevance is so crucial, and because school dominates the students’lives, you will find that the

students’current educational experiences are a rich source

of topics. For example, for the topic “language learning”I

use the strong opinion“You can't learn English in a classroom - you need to go

http://www.youtube.com/


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abroad”. This is relevant because we are in an English

classroom as we do this topic（I make the joke that this

topic is“very meta”） and controversial because it questions whether this is the best place to achieve the students’stated goal of gaining communicative competence in English. Likewise, if teaching debate in a high school,“Students should not have to wear school

uniform”would be an excellent choice of a debate - the students are likely to get very engaged with the material（no pun intended）and the result will be an exciting and animated debate.

One issue here is that as an educator you will have to carefully judge how far you wish to“bite the hand that

feeds you”in selecting debate topics that are（at least on

the Agree side ） openly critical of the policies and

procedures of the institutions you are employed by.

However I encourage you to experiment with this, both

because these topics really engage the students in critical

thinking and passionate discussion, and also because I

believe we educators have a duty to be scrupulously honest

with our students, even when that means turning a critical

eye on our own educational practices.

For the first few debates you do with a class, you should

definitely try to choose the topics that the students are

likely to get most excited about. However, as your students

become more experienced with debate then it becomes

possible to broaden the range of topics, though when you

do this, the Research and Reflection lessons（see below）

become more important in order for the students to have

enough background knowledge and understanding to be

able to debate.

４．The Course Structure My Discussion and Debate course follows a very clear structure of two lessons that repeat with different topics. In the first lesson we gather our initial thoughts and knowledge on the topic, and in the second lesson we divide into Agree and Disagree sides,

spend some time thinking about our reasons, and then finally meet in the middle to debate.

4.1 “Hands up, Remember Your Number”

The students, naturally enough, tend to come in and sit near

their friends, which means that if I don't do anything to

change their seating positions they will end up discussing

with mostly the same people every lesson, which will get a

bit stale. Over time I have developed a very efficient way of

rearranging the students: I ask all students to put their hands

up and then I start counting in order（1,2,3…） whilst

pointing to students in a random order－ once a student

has a number then they put their hand down. Once all

students have a number I then simply tell them to sit in

number order（this works particularly well in classes that

have a circular seating arrangement, but I also do it in

classes with fixed seating）． This only takes a couple of

minutes so it is easy to do at the start of each lesson, and

ensures that every lesson the students are working with

different people, which keeps the group discussions and

debate fresh.

4.2 Lesson 1: Think about the topic 4.2.1 Activity 1: The Why? Game The Why? game is an excellent warm-up activity that gets students talking, gets them thinking about the topic, and also teaches several important skills that the students will need for debate. It's also fun, but quite hard work: your students will come to love to hate the Why? game...

The Why? game is very simple to play: in pairs student A will ask the starting question - this is a question I give the students, related to the new topic - and student B will answer the question. Student A will then ask“Why?”, Student B will answer, Student A will

then ask“Why?”again, Student B will answer, and so on

until the time is up（I usually set the timer for three minutes）．

There is only one rule: the answering student must keep talking!


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Here's an example dialogue（using a starting question related to the“car society”topic）:

Student A: How do you come to school? Student B: I come by car.

A: Why?

B: Um, well, I live far from school so I need to come by car.

A: Why?

B: Aaah, because it's far, so there's no other way. A: Why? B: Because the bus would be too slow, and Okinawa has no

trains.

A: Why? B: Why?? Umm….I don't know, but maybe it's because

people in Okinawa prefer to drive. A: Why? B:［starting to sweat now, B's brain is now working hard!］．

Ummmmm…..it's convenient, in our cars we can go wherever we want.

A: Why?

...etc, until the buzzer rings for 3 minutes.

Before the students start I will usually do a quick warm-up

where the class ask me the starting question and then“Why? Why? Why?”- this reminds them how to

play and shows an example of thinking about the topic. After

they play one round I'll do a quick feedback session where I choose one student at random（using a random number app

on my smartphone）to play the Why? game so everyone can

see and I can offer suggestions to the class on how to keep

talking no matter what. The pairs will then switch roles so that

B asks the question and A answers, followed again by

choosing one student at random for a demonstration.

Every time we play I emphasize that the purpose of the Why? game is to practice finding things to say, because this is a vital skill for both debate and language learning generally － I tell the students that“the more you talk the

better you get at it, but

you won't get much practice if you can't think of things to

say,”and I refer to my own experience of learning Japanese

as an example. The first time in the semester that we play the Why? game I offer the following pointers to help the students learn how to keep talking for the full three minutes:

１．Think about your own life－this is a chance for

self-reflection: why do you do those things? There must be a reason, so try to identify it and then explain it.

２．Obvious answers are fine－don't worry about

whether your answer is an intelligent one or not; for the Why? game just say whatever comes into your head! For example:

B: Because I live in Ishikawa... A: Why?

B: Because that's where my house is! ３．Let conversation flow! Don't feel you need to stay

on the topic: let your conversation wander onto other areas - remember the goal is just to keep talking. For example:

A: Why?

B: Because my parents decided they wanted to live in Ishikawa, it's near my mother's family and my father has a farm.

A: Why?

B: My father likes animals, he has always been a farmer.

４．Try to give long answers－it's actually

easier to keep talking than it is to have to constantly answer“why?”so try to give nice long answers －

by letting it flow! ５．Change the question － If you can't answer the

question just change it to a question you can answer:

“I don't know why he likes animals, but I like my

house because it is near to the beach so I can go for a walk in the evening...

4.2.2 Activity 2: The Hot Seat The Hot Seat activity flows directly from the Why?


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game, and basically just adds lots more questions that relate

to the topic, and changes from pairs to groups. The very

clear structure（and the use of a timer）grew out of my

realization, when I first started teaching debate, that if I simply had the students sit in groups and“discuss”the

topic, most groups would fall quiet fairly quickly. The

big list of questions on the board, together with the assigned roles （ one“Hot Seat Student”and three

“Asking Questions”students ） and the inherent

challenge of talking until the timer rings mean that the task

is very clear, and I have found that this structure helps get

the students over their tendency to let conversation peter

out, and has been very successful in getting my students to talk a lot more when“discussing”. I use the following

method:

１．Think of questions

Working in the same pairs, I give the students five minutes

to think of a list of questions that relate to the general topic.

I then elicit their questions to the board, which gives us a

big list of questions ready for the Hot Seat activity itself.（See Appendix, photo 1 for an example.）

２．The Hot Seat Activity

To demonstrate the activity I will go on the Hot Seat and have the class ask me a couple of questions that I answer thoughtfully and honestly - as well as demonstrating the activity this gets us all thinking about the topic a little further. Then in groups the students choose one student（for fun I like to have them janken－rock paper scissors－

for it）who is going to be on The Hot Seat. The other

students take turns to ask questions from the board（though I

emphasize that they should let the conversation flow, and not feel limited to the questions）to the Hot Seat student,

who will do their best to answer the questions for the set period of time（usually 5～ 7 minutes）． Again the timer

provides a clear sense of purpose: keep talking until it rings. As in the Why? game I make it explicit that the value of this

challenge is that the more you talk the better you get at talking.

（Note: on a perfect day my students come in multiples

of four so that the time and turn taking work out perfectly.

However most days aren't perfect, so for the final round, I

tell groups of three to continue their conversation as a three-

way Q&A session, and I tell the two remaining students in

groups of five that they should both answer the questions.

This avoids any groups having to wait for the other groups to finish）．

３．Feedback

For feedback I will ask for any interesting answers, perhaps picking up something I heard during the activity, and once we have done those I will also pick random students and ask them some of the more interesting questions. I may also offer my own thoughts on their answers or the topic more broadly, and I will sometimes show a piece of relevant video.

4.2.3 Optional Extra Lessons: Research and Reflection I will often go straight from the Thinking about the Topic lesson into the Debate lesson, especially when the topic is quite familiar to the students

（for example, driving）．However with topics that

the students do not know so well（for example, nuclear

power），I will add in 1～3 extra Research and Reflection

lessons. The format for these is a bit more free-form, but the

basic pattern is that I will introduce opinions or perspectives on the topic（often by showing a short video clip）which the

students will discuss in groups and then share their thoughts

and reactions with the class. These lessons allow for some

more thought on the topic, and also allow me to introduce

more materials that provide a stimulus for the upcoming

debate.

4.3 Lesson 2: Debate the topic In a 90-minute period this is a very full lesson - with


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less able classes I sometimes break it into two lessons, so at junior high or high school this will definitely need to be spread over 2～3 lessons.

4.3.1. Thinking of Agree and Disagree Points

I open the class with a strong opinion. Sometimes I will simply give a short speech giving this strong opinion（which

I call my“Angry Minute”）though where possible I show

a relevant piece of video. I then write the strong opinion in

the top center of board, and indicate the Agree and

Disagree sides. I then do the Hands Up Remember Your Number activity to divide up into new groups of four（or so），

and once they have sat down in their new groups I tell the

groups on the Agree side of the classroom that they need to

think of reasons to agree with the strong opinion, and the

groups on the Disagree side of the classroom that they need

to think of reasons to disagree, and then I give them ten

minutes of thinking time.

Important Note on Groups: Unlike in the Hot Seat lesson, where it doesn't really matter how many groups you have, in the Debate lesson it's very important to have an equal number of groups on each side of the debate.

After giving about ten minutes of thinking time I elicit five

reasons from each side, numbered with odd numbers in

blue chalk for the Agree side, and numbered with even numbers in red chalk for the Disagree side. （ See

Appendix, photo 2 for an example.）This number/color

scheme makes it very easy to follow what comes next,

which is that each side needs to prepare defenses to the

attacks that will be coming.

In the first Debate lesson of the course I explain this with a very clear（and rather fun）example: I get one student to stand in front of me and then ask them to punch me（Me:“SLOWLY!! Don't hurt me!!!”）The first time I don't move, I just look

at what kind of punch comes. I then mime having a think, and then we do it again－this time I do the defense I just rehearsed. I now tell the students:

“This is what martial artists, boxers, K1 fighters, police

officers etc do: they figure out what attacks are likely to be

coming, and then they prepare defenses. And that is what

you need to do for debate: Agree side, you can see that the

Disagree side is going to attack you with these red attacks,

and likewise Disagree side, you can see that the Agree side is

going to come at you with these blue attacks. So now you

need to think about how you are going to block and

counterattack!”（This illustration is drawn from my own

experience: it's an interest in karate that brought me to Japan in the first place.）

I then give five minutes of thinking time, and then elicit a block-and-counterattack from each group, using the numbers and colored chalk to keep the board comprehensible.（See Appendix, photo 3 for an example.）

（Note that I don't get a block-and-counter for all the

attacks. The reason for this is simply time: it takes a while to write everything on the board, and I want to have time for three rounds of debate）．

4.3.2 The Debate: Three Rounds Round One: The students are now finally ready to debate. I take two students from each group（I use the students sat closest to the

center of the class）and have them swap seats to make new groups, where in each new group there are two Agree and two Disagree students － I make it clear the two sides should sit opposing each other.

I hand out little signs with“Agree”and“Disagree” to each

side, which are not strictly necessary for this round（though they

do provide a nice visual reminder of the“debate”task）but which are very useful in


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setting up Round Two － see below.

The Agree and Disagree table signs.

The last thing to make clear before the students start is that the Agree side always starts the debate. I give instructions for how they should do this: They use the phrase:

“We think that［STRONG OPINION］because ［ REASON ］［ A D D I T I O N A L R EA SONS / DETAILS/FOR EXAMPLE TALKING］．

The reason for this explicit phrasing is that starting the debate is the hardest part - left to their own devices some students will have a tendency to stare at each other for a few minutes, and to give a very halting back-and-forth where they are basically just reading the points off the board. Making the Agree side start removes any doubt about who is going to start, giving a set phrase tells the Agree side how to start, and having that set phrase be open-ended reminds the students that now is the time to put the just-keep-talking skills they've been honing in the Why? game and the Hot Seat activities to good use. At this point I give an example of how NOT to do it:

● Me:““We think children should be free to

choose how to spend their time, because they can learn independence earlier!” - this is too short! You

need to give some long talking to start the fight!”

and then of how to do it: ● Me:“We think children should be free to choose

how to spend their time, because they

can learn independence earlier! For example, when

children are free to play all day, they get lots of

practice of taking decisions about what to do. Also, if

they decide they want to learn maths, for example,

then they need to figure out for themselves how they want to learn － get a teacher, self-study, etc. They

have to take all the decisions for themselves so this is

how they can learn independence when they are still young. ”（ See Appendix, photo 4 for an example.）

I now give a minute or two of thinking time for the Agree

side to decide how they are going to start, and then lastly I

remind the students that the challenge is to keep talking for the entire ten minutes （ showing the timer to visually

emphasize the point），and then I start the timer and the

students begin their debate.

Here I wish to emphasize that in teaching“discussion and

debate”I lean quite far away from formal “debate”and

toward a“discussion”where the two sides disagree with each other. Many debate resources （Lubetsky, LeBeau and Harrington, 2000; Teacher’s Guide to Introducing Debate in the Classroom, 2017; Stewart and Pleish, 1998）take a more formal structure（First Affirmative,

First Negative, etc...） but in my teaching I eschew this formality in favor of spontaneous to-and-fro, for several reasons:

● I am at least as concerned with using debate to develop communicative ability and address the social issues as I am concerned with the debate process itself.

● Since my students are simply preparing for the similarly informal final exam（for this course I am

free to set my own exam）there is no specific need

to practice a more formal debate structure, as there would be if I was helping my students prepare for a formal debate event.

● I avoid any more structure than necessary in order to help the students relax into speaking,


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which in my experience is easier when we are not having to also think about a formal structure.

It is therefore important to acknowledge that I teach a very informal style of debate － if you need to（or prefer to）teach a more formal style then you will need to add that into the method I am outlining in this paper.

Another point to note is that I am very much teaching

debate by having the students do a lot of it and learn from doing（a point echoed by Hansen, 2007）－ I thus spend

very little time on pre-teaching useful phrases, for example, as

my own experience as a learner of Japanese tells me that it is

more effective for learners to extend their communicative

ability by simply bumping up against gaps in their knowledge

and learning to work around them, occasionally using me as a resource to help them phrase their thoughts（it is also

more fun, which is probably the reason it is more effective －

see Gray, 2014）

Round Two: For Round Two I mix up the groups again, by getting the students who moved for Round One to move again, so that they are facing new opponents（this is easily done by having the

front pair move to the back and the other two pairs move forward one space）．

And now here comes the fun part. For the last hour the Agree students have been Agree, and the Disagree students have been Disagree, and they've likely become quite entrenched in their side, even if their real opinion would be the other side. But now they are going to switch, which is where those Agree and Disagree desk signs become useful

— I take two of those and make a big show of

switching them to the alternate sides.

Using the table signs to switch the debate sides.

This is always a fun moment－there is often a collective

gasp as the students realise they are now on the other side

and are going to have to completely switch the direction of

their argument. As well as adding in some variety to the

task, this technique reinforces the point that a good debater

should be able to debate both sides, and that the best way to

become good at defending your side is to get into the heads of

your opponents and imagine how they are going to attack. By switching sides the students don't even have to imagine －

two minutes ago they were the side they are now opposing.

It's a bit of a gear-change, so I give them two minutes of thinking time, reminding the new Agree students that they are

going to need to start the debate with the“We

think...”phrasing.

And then they debate for another ten minutes.

Round Three: Early in the course, when I do a lot of set-up and explaining, it can be a struggle to get to Round Three in a ninety-minute period, though as the students become comfortable with the routine and structure we get quicker and Round Three becomes a more realistic possibility. For Round Three I tell the students that they are now free to choose and can move to go sit on the side that aligns best with their real opinion. Although sometimes there will be a fairly even split, usually one side will be much more popular than the other, though there will


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usually be a few students on the unpopular side, and if necessary you can encourage some more able students to switch sides for a challenge（which in my experience they are

quite happy to do － they usually value extra talking practice enough to be willing to argue the side that is not their real opinion）．

From here there are two options: whole class or （uneven）groups. The problem with whole class debates

is that discussion tends to be dominated by a few more confident students, with everyone else sitting watching and not saying anything. I don't think this is totally bad: it's a chance for the less able students to learn from observation, seeing how the more able students debate. That said, there is definitely more student-talking time to be gained by dividing the class up into several groups, with a handful of Agree students vs. a handful of Disagree students. These groups will likely be quite uneven, but again the advantage for the underpopulated side is lots of talking practice.

I forgo the timer for Round Three, because it's usually near the end of the lesson and because having had plenty of practice already, and now arguing their real opinion, the students are generally less in need of the discipline that the timer provides.

It's worth noting that occasionally everyone sits on one side, leaving no one to debate with. In this case I volunteer myself on the empty side, and have a me vs. the students debate. This can actually get pretty fun as I am likely to make some points that the students haven't really thought about yet, and my stronger- than-the-average-student debating style challenges the students to push back. Of course I invite and encourage them to do so, sometimes having them talk amongst themselves as thinking time, and I am careful to create lots of space for them to come back at me. If the side I am arguing is not my real opinion then I point this out and thus Round Three also provides a useful demonstration that a good debater

can debate both sides.

Finally, to finish the class I will ask for a quick show of hands for final Agree or Disagree vote, and I'll ask if anyone has changed their opinion over the course of the debates, and if so why. And I'll also often offer a few of my own thoughts on the topic, if I haven't already done so.

５．Results My Discussion and Debate course has been

consistently well-received by the students, as evidenced

by the results of the student survey results at the schools I

teach at. I would like to pick out a few key comments from

recent surveys, which show that the students rate highly the

experience of debate as an enjoyable tool for developing

speaking ability.（I have quoted the comments as written -

for comments written in Japanese I have included my own

translation in brackets）．

Okinawa Christian University

2016 Second Semester - Lesson Improvement Survey

（沖縄キリスト教学院大学2016年度後期授業改善

アンケート結果）

Discussion & Debate I Class H: ● I think debate is a good way to improve the English

speaking skills. In this class, I think my speaking speed up and I was satisfied with that.

● ディベートはスピーキングを鍛えるよい方法だと

思いました。このクラスで言いたいことが少し

● で

this class really made me think, which w

は言えるようになったと思う。（I think debate is

a good way to build my speaking ability. In this class I got a little more able to say what I want to say）．

とても考えさせられる話題があり、よかった

す。英語でのコミュニケーションをとりたい方に

は、とてもお勧めする授業です。（The topics in

as really good. I would really recommend this


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class to students who want to get better at communication）．

Discussion & Debate II Class B: ● This class was wonderful. I could learn how and what

my classmates think. ● I learned how to think about things like social

problems objectively by standing at both side Agree and Disagree. Thank you.

● 授業に参加しやすい。雰囲気がいい。（This was

an easy class to join in with, it had a good atmosphere）

● 毎回の授業でディベートができて楽しかった。

（Having debate activities in every class was really fun）．

Okinawa International University

2016 Second Semester － Lesson Survey

（授業についてのアンケート結果）

English for Special Purposes: ● Opinionを考えられるようになった。（I learned to

think of my opinion）． ● ミニデベートみたいな授業で自分の意見をちゃ

んと考えて言わないといけないので、良い機会

になった。もっと向上できるよう頑張りたい。

（ Having a mini-debate meant I had to say my opinion, which was a really good opportunity. I want to get better at this）．

● ディベート形式で、話す力が身についた。楽しく

授業できた。（The debate format meant I really

● ぞれに意見を聞くところは、良かった。

●

● となかっ

rtunities to take courses like this, where I

learned communication skills. It was a really fun class）．

生徒それ

（It was good to be able to hear everyone's opinions）．

Out putの授業だったので楽しかった。こういう授

業はあまりないので、必要だと思う。（It was fun to have such an output-based course. There aren't many courses like this, I think we need more）．

意見を言える授業は、あまり受けたこ

たので、新鮮で良かった。（I haven't had many

oppo

have to say my opinion, so it felt very fresh）．

Okinawa University

2016 First Semester Lesson Improvement Survey

（2016前期沖縄大学授業改善アンケート学生意見）

Discussion and Debate（Course Code: 32241）: ● 英会話能力が身につく良い授業だった。（I really

improved my English conversation ability, it was a good lesson）．

● 学生同士で意見を言い合った。（We exchanged opinions with our classmates）．

● 生徒自身が考え口に出すので、英語に直に触れ

た。（Because we had to speak directly with our

classmates, I was able to experience real English）． ● 会話能力も向上した。（I improved my English

conversation ability）． ● 会話の練習になった。（ It was good English

conversation practice）．

６．Conclusion Debate is an excellent class activity for developing speaking and listening abilities, critical thinking skills, and for examining social and cultural issues. There are some pitfalls to implementing this skillfully in the Japanese classroom, as without appropriate topics and sufficient preparatory work a teacher is likely to find that the students do not have too much to say and the activity will fall flat. However, with carefully chosen topics and enough preparation before beginning the actual debate activity, debate can be a fun and exciting lesson activity that really develops communication skills and that the students will thoroughly enjoy.

７．References En.wikiversity.org. （ 2017 ）． Introduction to Critical

Pedagogy - Wikiversity. ［ online ］ Available at: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Introduction_to_ Critical_Pedagogy［Accessed 6 Aug. 2017］．

Gray, P.（2014）．Free to Learn. Washington: Basic


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Books.

Harmer, J.（2015）．The Practice of English Language Teaching.

5th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education ESL.

Head, P., Kluge, D., Morris, R., & Rees, G.（2017）．

Transformation through speech, drama, and debate. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown

（Eds.），Transformation in language education.

Tokyo: JALT.

Lubetsky, M., LeBeau, C. and Harrington, D.（2000）． Discover

Debate. 1st ed. Medford, Oregon: Language Solutions Incorporated.

Robinson, S.（2010）．Tensaimon's JETpack. Raleigh, （North Carolina,）USA: lulu.com.

Stewart, T. and Pleisch, G.（1998）． Developing Academic Language Skills and Fluency Through Debate. The Language Teacher,［online］22（10）． Available at: http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/ articles/2381-developing-academic-language-skills- and-fluency-through-debate［Accessed 10 Aug. 2017］．

Teacher’s Guide to Introducing Debate in the

Classroom.（ 2017 ）．［ ebook ］Newfoundland and Labrador Speech and Debate Union, p.7. Available at: http://www .NLSDU.com［Accessed 6 Aug. 2017］．

http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/

http://www/


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photo 1 A list of questions for the Hot Seat activity.

photo 2 The initial Agree and Disagree points generated by the students.

photo 3 Block-and-counter points have been added to the initial list.

photo 4 The phrase the Agree side will use to start the debate added to the board.

付録


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A Guide to Teaching Discussion and Debate...

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