Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Aelric]

Some students have expressed to my co-teachers that they want a debate club after school for the advanced students. I was already planning on starting an advanced after school class and figure I could just turn it into this. The catch is, I was never in debate in high school myself and have no real idea how to run one. I'm doing the research now before I commit, but I was wondering if anybody has done this in their own schools. By the way, I teach a girls public middle school, if that helps your advice.

[Aelric]

Opps, wrong forum. Well, advice would still be appreciated if you got any.

[Goku]

Well as bragging rights I was vice president of my high school debate teams.

*attaches glasses and dusty 8 year old pocket protector.. heh heh snort*

I could tell you all the administrative and content details. But before I would give any advance I would need to know exactly what you want and what you are working with.

How many people are you dealing with?
Will they be doing this all in English?
Exactly how advance are they?

I could also send you some, "hot debate" topics depending on their age. Also rules, and basic debate structure.

There's usually phases such as both teams have introductions, rebuttal phases, and final closings.

[Aelric]

Well, the age is around 13 to 15. The class size has a 12 person limit (I want the class to allow me more personal time with each student) and the English lever for most of them is "Holy god, why am I even here", meaning the majority of them can have a very decent conversation in English and generally understand me fairly well, although they still have trouble with some pronunciation and with their articles. Even those less skilled are quite high on the intermediate level.

[Goku]

Actually that's a perfect setup,

12 people is the perfect size and if you are dealign with near native english speakers the possibilities are endless. Debate topics though have to be relevant for their age, as most youngsters usually don't have opinions about "aborition" or other types of social problems.

And sorry I have to ask about age again, are we talking 12-15 international age? Or Korean age? Because they sound like they are in middle school and most middleschoolers will have diffiuculty debating, here or anywhere.

[Aelric]

Yeah, it's international age. 13-16 Korean age. Sorry, I always get thrown off. Being middle school kids, I figured topics could be "Super Junior vs. Big Bang" or "Harry Potter vs. Twilight". Soft ball things like that. You said 12 is the best size? I'll make sure to make that the maximum registration, at least until I can ID some more advanced speakers (I think the well is dry, these few are really obvious in my otherwise rather low level school).

Now, one thing I'm a bit confused about is exactly how to moderate these. Is my role simply to ask some premade questions they expect and time their responses and assign topics or should I have a more active role in the debate, perhaps improving some questions as we go along? Also, how exactly does the scoring of "points" occur and how to I determine a winner of a debate? It seems to have less to do about being right or convincing others to you line of thinking and more to do with following debate procedure and speaking clearly, which is great, but I'm just ify on how to tell at times. Any, This is an idea that was hatched just this morning, so forgive me for having only minimal research before asking all the bonehead questions.

[Goku]

All very good and valid concerns that need to be addressed.

Actually, you may want a group larger than 12. 12 is a perfect size in terms of actual debating (6v6), but keep in mind you may want judges, moderators, or even a scribe or some officers. Depends on you.

I'll address the one that seems to be the hardest for now:

Judging.

The judge has to be critical and explanatory of logic. If you are the judge. I suggest reading up on some fallacies of logic or how to make arguements on the internet. It will help you immensely if you are judging.

Judging should be based on who makes the more compelling arguement. But how do you tell? To make your life simple you could count how many points they made during the debate phase and see if it was rebuttaled and casted away. There is a much better way to test validity in arguements but you're dealing with middle shcool...

A good debate team would state a few points, then rebuttal the opposing teams points (all of them) and then redefend their positions in closing.
If a team has not covered all their bases, or let another team poke holes in their arguement, then it's a failed arguement.

For example, let's take a debate about which is better... Lee Hyori or Big Bang. One team says Big Bang is better because they have more people. Then the LeeHyori team says, "no, just because you have more people doesn't mean it's better, a band is good if they can sing well, and lee hyori sings so well, she doesn't need 4 other people to help her". If the other team can't argue against that point, then the Lee Hyori team scores higher.

Or if a team makes a statement that is so logically airtight that the other team can't poke, then award them a point. For example, let's say the BigBang team says "BigBang is a superior band because they have topped the charts more than Lee Hyori. While Lee Hyori is still good, the majority of people prefer BigBang and in the latest K pop magazine, they said that BigBang is the most influential band of Korea today." Well, award them a point if LeeHyori team can't argue that.

To make your life easier, I would do it on a point to point basis not emphasizing the weight of each point made. For example, if team Big Bang says bigbang is better because they have handsome boys. If the other team doesn't argue against it then BigBang team is still awarded 1 point. Doesn't matter how stupid or irrelevant point is, it should have been addressed by the LeeHyori team.

This is the most simple and easiest way to determine a winner of a debate. I have gripes with it because I have a logic fetish and I know some kids are going to say "BigBang is better because I like them"... (ug) but for the sake of your sanity it would be the least time consuming way you could judge it.