Debate

[Noego]

Woah,

New forum layout, looking good.

I'm having a debating activity with my students and I'm short on debate topics.

I've found a few by browsing the web but most of the topics found online are either too advanced or too controversial for my chinese students.

Help, anyone?

[LwyrFirat]

The most recent debate which I’ve attended was: "Should smoking be banned in public places?" It’s useful both in terms of health and language. It’s useful for language as students need to use various vocabularies, such as medical, legal, chemical, social. I think, I don’t need to explain the health reasons. Plus, it’s neither advanced nor controversial (don’t know about China). Strongly recommended.

[sothon]

My teacher used to give my class that kind of debate,too! It's interesting!
It require to do research to get document to support our side. It's challeng to fight for idea.

[Soup]

Welcome back.

Four "hot" topics (as in generated lively debates) that worked very well for me in China at the university level:

1) In China, test scores show that males rank higher in math and science than females. Why? <Answer: EQ & culture>

2) Which is worse: internet addiction or substance addition? BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Treating China's online addicts / In China, Stern Treatment For Young Internet 'Addicts' - washingtonpost.com

3) Will Beijing be able to accommodate the vast number of Chinese and non-Chinese visitors during the 2008 Summer Olympic?

4) Should non-native speakers teach language courses in Universities? That is, should a native speaker of English teach Chinese / Should a native speaker of Chinese teach English?


Try these also,
Debatabase - World's Largest Debate Database - Debate Topics and Debate Motions
Debate @Web English Teacher
Debate topics - Conservapedia (Click on Funny, maybe?)

[arunp]

Woah,

New forum layout, looking good.

I'm having a debating activity with my students and I'm short on debate topics.

I've found a few by browsing the web but most of the topics found online are either too advanced or too controversial for my chinese students.

Help, anyone?

You may consider the following topic.

' Should internet viewing be censored/filtered ? '

[Noego]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I've actually tried to do: Should smoking be banned in public places but 90% of my students are girls who are against it. So no debate there.

I'll try out the ones you mentioned, Soup, thanks a lot!

I especially like the last one you suggested.