The authors identify competitive speech and debate as a form of play that helped democratize American citizenship for the poor, who used what they learned through the practice to advance their personal social and economic goals. In addition, this competitive activity led to the development of speech communication as an academic discipline and…

This article presents an activity that engages students in a fun and collaborative process of learning, with a primary objective of teaching them how to identify and label formal and informal argumentative fallacies. After playing a variation of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?," students ought to be better prepared to craft stronger arguments and…

Many controversial subjects characterize geography in the 21st century. Issues such as climate change, sustainability and social exclusion generate much discussion and often involve clear differences in opinion of how they might be addressed. Higher education is an important space for critical engagement with challenging issues. Preparing for and…

According to Ur (1996, 120), "of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important." Indeed, whether for business or pleasure, a primary motivation to learn a second language is to be able to converse with speakers of that language. However, in addition to being an important…

Proposes the use of the tournament debate format to encourage active student involvement in the discussion of philosophical and value-related questions surrounding natural resource management. Suggest modifications to traditional debate formats to aid in the classroom use. (MDH)

Presents a rationale for incorporating cross examination as a basic goal of teaching argument and discusses a system for generating cross examination questions and methods for practicing the development of such questions. (MH)

Examines how the 1988 Presidential Debates provide a resource for effective instruction in public argument. Provides several examples of effective (and ineffective) argumentative speaking taken from the debates. (MM)

Describes the planning and carrying-out of a debate between two upper-level French classes. Gives suggestions for each step of the preparation and performance, including some alternative possibilities. Some mention is made also of the use of debate in grades 8-10. (IFS/WGA)

Lincoln-Douglas style debate will not reach its objectives as value-oriented argumentation until debaters are trained in values analysis. Lacking adequate theoretical and practical literature and unsure of this relatively new debate format, coaches and debaters fail to develop an adequate understanding of what a value is and how it relates to…

Discusses how studying the 1988 Presidential Debates reveals the importance of ethos in speaking and being elected to office. Asserts that the debates also offer an excellent opportunity to teach propaganda devices or fallacies. Provides two examples from the second Presidential Debate. (MM)

This paper describes the use of British union, or parliamentary, debating in a college public-communication course. This debating format, practiced at British universities and used in the British House of Commons, promotes interaction between speaker and audience, emphasizing the effective methods of persuasive discourse that evoke audience…

Several writers have criticized the traditional structure of the forensics programs--on college and high school levels--as perpetuating a "reality gap" between contest debate and actual public communication. There are methods, however, whereby high school directors can help to bridge this gap and can present a more interesting and enriching…

Examines the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating educational debate into a marketing class. Notes that marketing debates can provide valuable experience both to help students learn various sides of controversial issues and to develop oral communication skills. (MM)

Intended for use by instructors of upper division speech courses, this paper describes a questioning and answering technique for teaching argumentation. The first section of the paper discusses the concept of argumentative exchange, which is defined as an episode between two or more individuals wherein one or more feel that differences of belief…