Speaking & debating

Marcin Stanowski
marcin.Stanowski@iatefl.org.pl

Aims
Learning new activities fostering public speaking.
Ways of working with the talented ones.
Sources of activities/tasks.
Warsaw Oxford Regular League of Debates
We shall practise too!
What’s in it for students? – calendar of events
Starting at 10 am, finishing at 1 pm. Breaks if needed.
Marcin Stanowski - www.superteachers.pl 2

Public speaking & debating
is great for:
• Facilitating fluency
• Boosting confidence
• Writing skills
• Vocabulary
• Listening skills
• Note-taking skills
• Translation skills
• Editing skills
• Teamwork skills
• Audience skills
• Time-management skills
• Cultural knowledge

Improv games
Pass the Clap
An easy way to establish attentive listening, trust, and spontaneity
Rules:
 Gather in a circle and pass the clap from person to person.
 Each person must face the other person and clap simultaneously.
 You must establish eye contact!
Notes:
 The clap can be reversed.
 It can also be sped up.

Improv games
The Fortune Teller with Two Heads
Nominate two students to be the fortune teller.
People from the class can ask them questions about the future.
The catch is that then fortune teller must answer the question one word
at a time per student.
Example:
Student A You
Student B Will
Student A Meet
Student B A
Student A Beautiful
Student B Frog……..

Improv games
"Yes, and..." Stories
Rules:
 Students stand in a circle and the story moves around it.
 The teacher provides a topic and begins the story.
 The next person must say “Yes, and…” and add another sentence to the story.
Example:
The teacher says, “My fifth birthday was my most memorable childhood moment.”
The student says, “Yes, and I had the most delicious birthday cake ever.”
You must say “Yes, and…” No buts!

Diction exercises
(tonguetwisters)
 Theophilus Thistler, the thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve
of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles
through the thick of his thumb.
 Betty bought a bit of butter, but she found the butter
bitter, so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make
the bitter butter better.

Authentic language twisters
 A twenty-two point two cubic foot frost free
refrigerator-freezer.
 X-dot-Desktop.
 A lower-cost alternative to traditional plans.
 A one half-inch insulin syringe.

Relaxing mouth
 Unique New York.
 Toy boat.
 Lemon liniment.
 Three free throws.
 Blue black bugs blood.
 Red lorry, yellow lorry.
 Giggle gaggle gurgle.

Other vocal traits…
vocal variety (a Monotone Martha or Martin),
speech rates (great for slowing a motor-mouth),
using silence effectively,
breathing especially to overcome the anxiety of public
speaking

First things first
 Dialogues
 Prompted speches (visually, aurally, etc…)
 Prepared short speeches
 Ad hoc short speeches
 Table topics
 Writing long speeches
 Debating

Table topics
…
8. Who do you love and what are you doing about it?
9. What’s a belief that you hold with which many people
disagree?
10. What can you do today that you were not capable of a
year ago?
11. Do you think crying is a sign of weakness or strength?
12. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would
judge you?
13. Do you celebrate the things you do have?
14. What is the difference between living and existing?
15. If not now, then when?
16. Have you done anything lately worth remembering?
… Marcin Stanowski - www.superteachers.pl 12

Power of metaphor
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbz2boNSeL0

Tips and tricks
 Frame
 Metaphor
 Repetition
 Stylistic inversion
 Cleft stentences

PECHA KUCHA
20x20
www.pechakucha.org/

Debate topics (hear,hear/
shame!)
 This House doesn’t need teachers.
 This House doesn’t need political correctness.
 This House would eliminate grading / marking.
 This House would give money to beggars.
 This house supports cloning.
 This house believes we need another Shakespeare, not
another Einstein.
 This house would ban reality TV.
 This house believes in extraterrestrials.
 This house prefers Snickers to Twix.

Resources
 www.idebate.org
 www.debate.org
 www.debatewise.org

You need:
• Two teams of four.
• A chairperson
• A (charming) bellboy/girl
• A bell
• Judges (2+)
• One hour and 30mins

Preparation for school
debates
• Brainstorm & choose a topic (involve the class).
• Assign 2 teams of 4: proposition / opposition.
• Groups assign “roles” within the team.
• Write the speeches (5-7mn or less).
• Practice practice practice.
• Chairperson prepares introductions.
• Recruit and train judges.

How to prepare for BIG
debates
 Meet & talk
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-
CSM_8gBLnXngGVbD51C5lMFXFureOoDXgaaFkDNQaw/edi
t
 Watch others

Debate itself
 Teams sit together up front.
 Bellgirl/boy and chairperson also sit up front.
 Chairperson opens the debate and explains the rules
and debate structure.
 4 students in team, each speaks for 4 minutes.

Structure
1st speaker – opening and presentation, arguments
2nd speaker – arguments
3rd speaker – rebuttal
4th speaker – summary

 There are two sides – the Proposition who speak in
favour of the motion and the Opposition who speak
against it.
 Any member of the audience may interrupt any of the
speakers at any time by standing and asking a “Point of
Information”. The speaker may accept or decline the
point.

Language for debates
Stating an opinion
• In our opinion...
•We (don’t) think that…
•The way we see it...
• If you want our honest opinion....
•According to the other side/ our opponents…
•As far as I'm concerned...
•Our position is the following…

Sequencing :
• Firstly…, secondly…, our third point is that…
• The first good reason to… is that… ; next ; what’s more ;
moreover….
• To begin, we think that… ; in addition, you have to know
that… ; last but not least….
• The first point I would like to raise is this…
• Here’s the main point I want to raise…
• I’d like to deal with two points here. The first is…

“I’m listening to the other side.”
• I see your point, but I think…
• Yes, I understand, but my opinion is that…
• That’s all very interesting, but the problem is that…
• I’m afraid I can’t quite agree with your point.
• I think I’ve got your point, now let me respond to it.
• We can see what you’re saying. Here’s my reply…

Disagreeing :
• Excuse me, but that’s not quite correct.
• Let me just respond to that, please.
• I’d like to take issue with what you just said.
• We said that… but the other side has not replied to our point.
• I’d like to focus on two points that the other side has failed to
address.
• There are two issues our opponents have failed to dispute,
namely…
• We pointed out that…
• Our opponents have claimed that…
• To recap the main points…
• Let’s sum up where we stand in this debate.
• In summary, we want to point out that…

Logical thinking

 No patient will be harmed by this doctor anymore.
 When will you stop mollesting children?
 Bad education system must be changed. We will introduce
a new model of education.
 Joseph is an excellent secretary even though he is a man.
 Surely, there are some non-fighting Muslims, who have values that
I could agree to.

Appeal to false authority
 I saw Lewandowski endorse that brand of razor in a
commercial last week, so it has to be good.
 Einstein said: 'Nothing will benefit human health and
increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as
much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.'

Red herring
“I have worked hard to help eliminate criminal activity.
What we need is economic growth that can only come
from the hands of leadership.

Ad hominem
 If you were a good teacher, you would know how to act
in that situation.
 You can’t listen to Piotr. His father served in Vermacht.

Poisoning the well
 Vegeterians are strange. Do you know Hitler was
vegeterian?
 Atheists are immoral. Stallin was an atheist.
 Joseph was a good guy. He was fighting the Nazis.

Generalizations
There is nothing wrong talking on a mobile phone during
lectures.
Other students do it all the time.

Events in Poland
 www.facebook.com/esubydgoszcz/
 www.facebook.com/muszkieterowie.slowa/
 www.iatefl.org.pl
 www.pspo.edu.pl/aktualnosci/2017/02/07/coolturiada-
2017-miedzyszkolny-festiwal-kultury-miedzynarodowej-
trwaja-zapisy/
 https://toastmasters.pl/pl/
 http://speakingelephants.pl/

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