Debate as a tool for L2 learning: Investigating the potential of in-class debates for second language learning and argumentation skills

Abstract

Debate is widely hailed as an effective teaching tool capable of attaining many learning objectives. Yet, in second language education there is scant empirical evidence available to support this assumption. The present study set out to: 1) elicit second language students’ perceptions with regard to the factors that underlie positive attitudes towards debate and their perceptions of its impact on different aspects of language development; and 2) experimentally explore the affordances and effectiveness of debate pedagogy with regard to speaking, writing, and argu¬mentation skills in the Dutch secondary school context. After having developed a debate task design—consisting of a number of speaking and writing activities—following the guidelines and principles of educational design research, I conducted the perception studies. Drawing on data from questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and student performance, the main finding of the perception studies was that the participants greatly admire debate and correlate debate participation with an improvement in all language areas being investigated (i.e., speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills, as well as vocabulary and grammar). The intervention studies, which were conducted in three secondary schools and involved intervention and control groups, evaluated the effects of debate pedagogy on different aspects of speaking, writing (including opinion writing tasks and argumentative essays), and argumentation skills. Multilevel analyses in all these intervention studies revealed that the students in the intervention group significantly improved on a number of the assessed measures in comparison to the control group. From the findings, it can be concluded that debate pedagogy can provide a motivating learning environment that nests a range of unique combinations of pedagogical features that presumably activate processes that lead to the improvement of many dimensions of speak¬ing, writing, and argumentation skills. Debate pedagogy provides fertile ground for an interplay of many pedagogical approaches and factors—such as competitiveness, presence of audience, interactiveness, engagement, and skill-integration—that mutually strengthen and interact with each other and ultimately lead to enhanced language and argumentation performance. It seems that the observed gains hinge on the synergetic collaboration of a number of these factors, if not all of them. This study has provided research-based evidence on the affordances of debate pedagogy. This departs from the common view that debates are only apt for extracurricular activities or in the competitive sphere. In short, in-class debates provide unique learning opportunities. While debating, students are doing something worthwhile that leads to substantial progress. In-class debates should therefore be an integral part of not only second language but of foreign language learning as well.