Skill Focus: DEBATE
Debates are an important form of English classroom activity because they give you the opportunity to make use of many different language skills in speaking. In debates, you can demonstrate your reasoning powers and your ability to answer argument with argument. The whole exercise can be highly enjoyable for all concerned, whether as speakers or as listeners. This unit has touched on the sad fact that violence is an ongoing problem in the society. Sometimes, the violence can even involve murder and raises the question what would be the penalty for murder. Your teacher will now organize a debate on this motion: “Capital punishment should be abolished”. Some points that might be made by the speakers on each side are set out below.
| S/N | Suggested points for Proposer | Suggested points for Opposer |
| 1 | Every life is sacred, no one, not even the state has the right to deprive anyone of life | Those who take life lose their own right to life |
| 2 | God gave us life, it is not for man to take it away | There are many people e.g. rapists, drug dealers who forfeit their right to life through appalling behavior |
| 3 | There is no evidence that capital punishment is a deterrent | Deterrence works: especially in the case of drug dealers after it was decreed that they should be executed |
| 4 | Countries that have capital punishment do not have a lower murder rate | The victims of appalling crimes want justice to be done: ‘an eye for an eye’ |
| 5 | Mistakes have been made and innocent people have often been executed | People who are not executed become prisoners for life this is in itself ‘cruel and degrading punishment’. |
| 6 | Those involved in carrying out capital punishment find it traumatic and dehumanizing | |
| 7 | Malefactors can be rehabilitated in prison | It is also costly to keep such criminals in prison: why should innocent people have to pay to support malefactors? |
| Summary: | Capital punishment is a cruel and barbaric form of punishment which fails to deter and dehumanizes those who administer it | Those who are sentenced to death by the state deserve to die, and this acts as a deterrent; other forms of punishment are both cruel and expensive. |
Note: Try to arrange your speech as a list of points and then make each point, not by reading out your speech to the audience but by speaking directly to them referring occasionally to your notes as necessary.
How To Organise A Debate
The Chairperson calls for order, opens the meeting, welcomes the special guests (if any) and reads out the motion:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the motion before the house today is as follows. “Capital Punishment should be abolished”.
‘I now call upon (name of speaker) to propose or oppose the motion’.
Each speaker is then introduced in turn, in the order indicated below.
- The Proposer (4/5minutes)
- The Opposer (4/5minutes)
The chairperson now calls on the seconders to speak, using these words:
Í now call upon (name of speaker) to second the proposer/opposer.
- The person who seconds (supports) the proposer (3/4minutes)
- A speaker who seconds the opposer (3/4minutes)
After these four speeches, the chairperson should remind the meeting of the motion, and then calls on speakers from the floor – that is, the audience.
The opposer and finally, the proposer, sums up – and a vote is taken.
