Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 34

Writing Practice of debating develops learners’ writing skills too. While writing debate scripts, students practice writing composition in an organized way. To make debate scripts, they need to brainstorm on the topics and jot down points. Thus, they learn how to think about a topic in a systematic manner and also to link between points. Moreover, they learn the process of prioritizing the points. If students get debate topics one or two days earlier, they usually collect information and write the whole script. Debate-scripts are like argumentative essays. Thus they learn writing argumentative paragraphs and essays. Furthermore, students practice limiting topics and making them controversial enough for arguments and counter- arguments. When students make the final debate-script, they retain only the main points, not the details. In this way, they master limiting topics, writing topic sentences and also making outlines. To sum up, debating entices students to write composition in English. The countries where English language is treated as a foreign language are laden with many problems that prevent students from using the language outside classroom. Moreover, in most of the cases, EFL teachers fail to implement properly the best methods, approaches and classroom activities to teach students the skills of the English language. In such cases, students in these countries need to go through some practices that make them practice English language in real-life situations. Debating can be used to learn English in both formal and informal settings. It is such an activity that engages learners in practicing all skills of the English language. Debating students learn both the English language and presentation skills which will make them confident users of the English language in academic, social and professional settings. Bibliography: Davidson, Bruce. (1995). Critical thinking education faces the challenge of Japan. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, 17(3), 33-42. Nesbett, Richard E. (2003). The geography of thought. New York: The Free Press. Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies. New York: Newbury House. Chamot, A. U., & O’Malley, J. M. (1994). The CALLA handbook. New York: Addison-Wesley. https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/shutel/2014/09/02/debate-an-approach-to-teaching-and- learning/ (link last accessed on 29 September 2018) 34