Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 32

THE DEBATE: AN APPROACH TO TEACHING AND LEARNING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Gitana KaupienÄ—, Kedainiu Sviesioji gimnazija, KÄ—dainiai, Lithuania Abstract: The countries that use English as a foreign language need effective activities, which propel students to practice skills of the language properly inside as well as outside classrooms. Debating is a practice that inspires learners to practice speaking skills, get into discussion, defend their own positions, place counter arguments and conduct research on related issues. While debating in English, the debaters get involved into a challenging and thrilling activity; moreover, they find themselves well conversant in a foreign language. This article presents the rationale behind using debate in EFL classes. Key words: EFL, debate, skills, communication, learning, motivation. Debating is a formal method of interactive and representational argument aimed at persuading judges and audience. It is a rhetoric practice in which different strategies of logic building as well as delivery are used to pull in the target audience to a conclusion on a controversial issue. Debating can be used classes as a tool to make students practice skills of English language in real-life situations. Debate offers English language teachers a way to combine practices of these important skills. When debating is used in classes, all four skills of English language (e.g. listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are practiced. Moreover, debaters need to master pronunciation of words, stress, vocabulary, brainstorming, script writing, logic building, argumentation and refutation. So practicing debate in English requires many skills, which ultimately lead them to learn English. In an EFL setting, where learners have inadequate opportunities for practicing English in real- life situations, debating opens up opportunities for them to use the language in the form of expressing their opinions with logic. This is a single practice where students need to use all English skills along with skills in delivery, presentation and vocabulary building. English language teachers and practitioners have already proved debating as an effective tool in teaching English which is a strong source of motivation for EFL teachers who are yet to use debate in their classes. Debating in English is a practice that requires all English language skills along with the skills of presentation and delivery. Debaters need updated information about current issues and concepts of different fields. Moreover, they need to conduct research on various issues. While presenting their logic and argument, debaters require standard delivery skills to convince judges and audiences. When practiced in an EFL class, debating makes students use language and presentation skills. The discussion that follows dwells on the utility of debating in learning the skills of English language. Ice Breaking Debating helps in several ways to ice-break in EFL classes. Sometimes, especially in the first classes where students are very often found anxious about using English language, ice breaking turns to be very difficult for teachers. In such classes, students are reluctant to speak in English. Sometimes, in the very first class, teachers ask students to come in front of the classroom and speak which 32