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substantive speech, members of the opposing team are allowed to give an interruption, called Points of Information POI, to the speaker delivering
the speech. POIs may be delivered between the 1
st
and 7
th
minute of the 8- minute-speech
5. A time keeper will signal the time. There will be one knock at the end of
the 1
st
and 7
th
minutes, to signal the starting and ending times for POI. And two knocks at the 8th minute to signal that delivery time for speech
has ended. Any debater speaking before 7
th
minutes shall be considered under-time and hisher points could be reduced. Any debater speaking
after 8
th
minutes 30 second shall be considered overtime and hisher points could be reduce as well
6. For reply speech, there will be one knock at the 3
rd
minute, to signal that delivery time is almost over, and two knocks at the 4
th
minute. 7.
Every debate shall be judge by an odd number judges and only the judges shall decide who wins the debate there is no draw in result of a debate
8. In Indonesians 2006, every team is given 30 minutes preparation time after
the motion is released and before the debate begins. During this preparation time, teams are not allowed to get help from anybody be it
coaches, teachers, parents or friends or use laptop, PDAs, or any other communication devices.
c. Some Terms in Critical Debate.
1 Motion
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Motion also known as topic, is full propositional statement that determinant what a debate shall be about. In the debate, Affirmative team must
argue to defend the motion while the Negative team must argue to oppose it. Example:
a That English is the most important tool in globalization
b That students should not be allowed to bring mobile phone to school
c That we should stop migrant labor to oversea
d That we should give death penalty to drug dealer
As you can see, motions in a debating competition cover various areas; politics, economy and social issues.
2 Definition For debating to proceed, both teams need a clear understanding of what
the motion means. This requires the motion to be defined so that everyone audience and judges included knows what is being debated. Problems arise if the
two teams present different understandings of the meaning of the motion. This can result in a `definitional debate` where the focus of the debate becomes the
meaning of the words in the motion, rather than the motion itself. Interaction and clash between the two teams become concentrated on whose definition is correct,
rather than the issues raised by the motion. Definition debates should be avoided wherever possible. They make a mockery of what debating seeks to achieve.
A Definition scopes down or gives limitations on the motion to focus the debate. It clarifies the motion. It prevents the debate from turning into a confusing
exchange of ideas because of different interpretations teams may have about what
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is actually being debated. Out of the definition should come a clear understanding of the issues talked about in the debate. A definition must have a logical link to
the motion. The right to give a definition belongs to the Affirmative team. The affirmative team must provide a reasonable definition for the motion. This means
that on receiving the motion, both teams should ask: “What the issue that simply to clarify the motion is. The Affirmative team must give a definition that give
room for negative team to oppose it. 3 Arguments
Arguments explain why a point of view should be accepted. Good arguments are logical and relevant to the point being proven. Given duration of
debate, it is best to have 2 to 4 arguments to support your point of view. This argument should be divided between the 1
st
and the 2
nd
speaker. So some arguments are explained by the 1
st
speaker and the rest are explained by the 2
nd
speaker. This division is called a team split. Furthermore, having more than one argument means that teams should
make sure that their arguments are consistent or do not contradict each other. Contradiction and inconsistency makes a team’s performance seem poor because
it shows as if they’re not agreeing the points among themselves. It is good to have a main idea that connects or becomes the foundation of the arguments. This is one
way of ensuring arguments don’t contradict with one another. This main idea is usually named as a team linetheme line in a debate.
Michael Birshan in ISDC Official Regulation 2006: 7 says that a good argument should consist of four criteria called AREL.” A” means Assertion. It is a
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statement that should be proven. “R” means reasoning. A statement must be supported by reason that is logical explanation of the statement.”E” mean
Evidence. A good reason must have good evidence. Evidence can be in form of examples or statistical data, fact, quotation of expert, public opinion, ect. Which
are very essential to support the statement and to back up each point made in the argument. Each piece of evidence should be relevant and it should be advance the
argument. “L” means link back. It is aconclussion to relate back to the statement. 4 Rebuttals
Rebuttals are responses toward the other team’s arguments. Rebuttals should prove that the other team’s arguments are not as important as they claim to
be. As with arguments, mere accusation does not equal good rebuttals. It is not enough to say that the other team’s arguments are inferior, good rebuttals should
also explain the reasoning and evidence of why those arguments are inferior. Given limited time in a debate, it is not necessary for a team to rebut every
single point and fact raised by the other teams. Better single out the opposing team’s main arguments and attack those first. Team should prioritize rebutting
strong and important points first and leave the weak ones for last priority 5 POI
Points of information are brief interruptions preferable in form of question between the 1
st
and 7
th
minute of speech. The speaker delivering a speech has full authority to accept or reject a POI. One accepted, a POI should not
exceed 15 minutes and the speaker must answer that POI right after it is given.
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In order to offer a POI, person must stand up, hold out hisher hand and say” On that point,SirMa’m” or “ on that point of information”. POI shoud be
offered politely, not used to hackle the speaker. When offered a POI, the speaker having the floor has full authority to either reject or accept the POI. If a person is
rejected a POI, heshe should sit down again. POI should be brief and expressed as a question so that the speaker is
required to provide an answer. Once accepted, the person offering POI has at most 15 seconds to deliver the POI. The speaker then must anwer or respond to that
POI right after it is given and not wait until later in hisher speech. It is advisable that the speaker does not answer POI more than 30 seconds as it would make
himher lost track of hisher speech. POI should be offered regularly and through out the course of the debate.
Offering POI shows that they understand the issues being discussed during the debate.
D. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Critical Debate.
Previously, it has been stated that applying a debate technique in teaching speaking skill may affect students’ learning motivation. In this case, students may
be more motivated to have more vocabulary, to read more information and to be courageous in telling their opinions. In addition, applying critical debate
continually in the language class activities enables the students to be more familiar with the situation in which it demands them to talk using English.
Talking about the value of critical debate technique in detail, Barkley, et al 2005: 126 elaborate that in a critical debate, individual students select the side of
