The Role of English Debating Tournament in the Face of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)

Husnawadi Husnawadi,Syamsudarni Syamsudarni

doi:10.21093/di.v16i1.353

Husnawadi Husnawadi, Syamsudarni Syamsudarni

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v16i1.353

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Journal: Dinamika Ilmu	Publication Date: Jun 1, 2016
Citations: 1	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Flinders University

Abstract

Since its establishment in the late 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) with English as the official language has forced its participating countries to improve the quality of English language teaching, in the hope to prepare their people to be globally competitive. The lack of English proficiency, however, remains the main challenge across the country members. English forensic or debating tournament has been proven to bring about globally competitive individuals in terms of being highly competent in English together with having higher order thinking skills. Grounded in Indonesian context, this paper presents (1) typology of English debating tournaments in Indonesia, (2) how English debating improves the language competence and critical thinking skills by drawing on some of respective research, (3) An example of its practice in an EFL classroom in Indonesia and its principles, (4) and its implications on the teaching of English in Indonesian.

Highlights

At a lower context such as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), among the many differences and challenges that exist in the participating countries, say; culture, language and religion, the former is the primary drawback (Yaakub, 2015)
A myriad of written discourses both in the forms of scientific studies, or accounts with respect to the issue or birth of AEC in relation to English language teaching has been pervasive among the countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand
In the handbook of National University Debating Championship (NUDC) issued by the minister of higher education (Departement Pendidikan Nasional, Derektorat Jenderal Managemen Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, 2009), it is stated that the provision and support to holding the forensic tournament among the university students is in the hope of producing globally competitive generations of Indonesia, the individuals that can compete worldwide

Summary

Introduction

This paper presents (1) typology of English debating tournaments, (2) how it can generate highly competitive individuals, and (3) An example of its practice in an EFL classroom in Indonesia and its principles, (4) and its implications on the teaching of English in Indonesian schooling context. The second speaker of the affirmative team, (A1) has to spend most of the given time on arguing and bringing novel ideas to the debate.

Results

Conclusion