Integrated Skills III – 2012/01
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD9F1t9GQzA
 What are the topics of this part of the debate?
Assertions made by Senator Clinton, as
well as her husband, about Obama’s
view on war and Republican policies.
Language
Used in Debates
 OBAMA: When Senator Clinton or President Clinton
asserts that I said that the Republicans had had better
economic policies since 1980, that is not the case.
 CLINTON: Well, I couldn't agree more. But I do think
that your record and what you say does matter.
 OBAMA: You just said that I complimented the
Republican ideas. That is not true. What I said -- and I
will provide you with a quote (…)
 OBAMA: I didn't say they were good ones. (….) But what I
did say is that we have to be thinking in the same
transformative way about our Democratic agenda.
 The proposition
 The affirmative side
 The negative side
 The audience
 Propositions of fact: assert the truth of falsity of
some factual matter.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are being
achieved.
 Propositions of Value: these are value judgments
Private high schools are better than public high schools.
Watching TV is a waste of time.
 Propositions of Policy: these are concerned with
courses of action one can take.
Japan should abolish death penalty.
The Japanese government should ban all genetically
modified foods.
 The proposition must be focused on one single idea. A bad
example may be "Japan should abandon nuclear power
plants and promote solar power generation.”
 The proposition must be controversial. In other words, the
arguments for and against the proposition must be more or
less balanced.
 The proposition must be neutrally worded. The proposition
like "Resolved: That Japan should abolish inhumane death
penalty" is biased in favor of the affirmative side.
 The proposition must be suitable for participants in terms
of interest and difficulty.
The use of L1 in L2 teaching
2) The use of authentic materials in L2 coursebooks
and classrooms
3) Testing - traditional tests X process assessment
4) Diploma in our area - should people that do not
have a college diploma in language/literature be a
translator, teachers etc?
1)
PREPARING FOR A DEBATE
 Create complementary pairs: look for a
negative that goes along with a positive.
 Prepare for a critique of your ideas by your
opponents.
 Eliminate
ideas if you discover that a
potential opposition carries more weight.
 After generating a lot of ideas for their debate case,
debaters should focus on formulating the strongest
arguments for and against a given resolution.
 Argument:
process in communication in which
reasoning (logic) is used to persuade others.
 1) Argument by example: The debater offers evidence of what
is known and proven as a fact.
Example: Studies have been conducted on population X, which
demonstrate that increased consumption of vegetables are
beneficial to health. Therefore we should switch from meatbased diet to vegetable- based diet if we want to be healthy.
 2) Argument by analogy: The debater knows that A is true
(justified, desirable). The thing she/he would like to make a
claim about (B) is similar to A. Therefore he/she concludes that
B is also true (justified, desirable)
Example: National culture for a nation is like nutrition for an
individual. If you deprive an individual of nutrition, he will
perish. The same happens to nations who are deprived of their
culture.
 3) Argument of cause and effect : The debater identifies
two phenomena and reasons that there is a causal
relationship between them.
Example: If parents who are unqualified to teach start
teaching their children, the level of education will decrease
dramatically.
 4) Argument from authority/ testimony – the debater
use an authority to prove the claim.
 Example: A psychologist from Harvard university, Ms
Jennifer Smith claims that watching violent films does not
have any influence on children, because they have the
ability to distinguish between fiction and reality.
1) Write a proposition
2) Create a T-Chart
3) Work in groups to build your arguments based
4) Groups debate: use specific language
5) Audience acts as a judge