Training the Trainers Workshop 2015

We might have a young debate community, but that is not a reason to not aim high. One of the main bottlenecks identified in terms of spreading English debating is a lack of confident and qualified trainers for secondary and tertiary institutions.

With this in mind, the Taiwan Debate Union organized this event to increase the level of participation in Taiwan English debating, by training the trainers who would then be empowered and equipped to give constructive and necessary feedback to their students or their peers.

For these two days, April 11th and April 12th, high school debaters, university debaters and teachers gathered in the relaxing tea rooms of 人性空間, deliberating over the pros and cons of various lesson plans, and exploring the principles of giving good debate feedback. We examined how to teach giving and receiving POIs (Points of Informations), building and brainstorming arguments, and constructing direct and efficient rebuttals. We started as early as 10.30am and did not leave until 5.30pm in the afternoon. Everyone was knackered, but the effort was worthwhile.

I have always believed that being a great debate trainer is not necessarily being the same thing as a great debater. As a teacher of debating, critical thinking, as well as academic subjects like Chemistry and Mathematics, I understood that teaching techniques matter just as much as the content or the depth of your personal experience. Simply, high level of success in debate does not translate to useful training or teaching abilities, and many younger students are consequently mislead to believe that debating is reserved for those with innate talents. In a country where the average student is well-versed in English grammar, Taiwanese students are still easily intimidated by English conversation. If I can attribute my dramatic improvement in English to a single factor, it would be my experience in English debating. As the interest in English debating grows and Taiwanese students and parents develop an appetite for learning practical English and seek extracurricular activities beyond cram schools, more people need to step up and become trainers in order to facilitate the difficult first step into English debating.

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Read some of our trainers' opinions: "Wen-yu, thank you so much for holding the training event. I had a lot of fun devising lession plans and even demonstrating them! What I've learned most is how to assess one's speech and give feedback to others, which I think can be applied to education fields and any other fields." Jillian Tsai, National Taiwan Normal University "Learning how to train is an essential complement to learning itself, especially for one to build up a holistic view of a particular field of skill and knowledge. This remarkable event absolutely escalated my ability and competence in the field of English debating, and I would like to give a full regard to Wen-Yu for making this happen." Edward Chou

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