Service: Teaching English Club

            Today we commenced with our third unit: Debate. During this first meeting, we started with introducing everyone to the basic knowledge that we were introduced to when we first joined the Debate Club last school year. As the different house teams will be competing in a debate competition soon after their return from Christmas break, they all sent representatives to join this unit of English Club, along with a list of names that will make up their two teams, with two member of their house team listed as a team keepers, one for each team they send. Though some of the house teams have not submitted completed lists yet, we still had representatives from most all the house teams attend.

            First we introduced them to the style of the debate competition that we will be holding, that is, Asian Parliamentary. With this introduction we explain to them the concept of motions and speakers, explaining to them that each team will consist of three speakers, who all speak in turns, as well as having either the first or second speaker act as the reply speaker. We explained to them that when two teams go against each other, one team will be supporting the motion, as the affirmative, and they will define the terms of the motion. The other team will then act as the opposition, stating their arguments for why the motion should not pass. Aside from this we also explained to them the amount of time that each speaker is allowed, which we have shortened for the House Team Debate Competition, as there are times constraints that we have to work with.

            Most of the time, the house team representatives were listening and note taking. The purpose of today’s meeting was mainly to introduce them to debating and the format of debates as seen in debate competitions, which is unfamiliar to most of the house team representatives, if they did not participate in Debate Club last year. I feel that the teams are beginning to understand the format of debates, even if some of them are still somewhat confused, or do not have a clear idea of what a debate will actually look like when they take part in it.