Exploring Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Aspects of English Debate Participants’ Speech

Abstract

The current study explored the linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of participants in an English debate contest. Further, the present study analyzed interviews in order to enlighten students’ perception on the use of English debate technique in the classroom and gather students’ suggestions for improving the current English debate system. For the research, the speaking samples of eight undergraduate students participating in a semi-final round of English debate contest were transcribed and analyzed line-by-line. Then, four semi-structured interviews, the purpose of which was to explore the participants' perception on English debate, were also transcribed and analyzed. As T-unit analysis showed that the proportions of critical-error-free T-unit in total T-unit are from 0.79 to 1.00., students were likely to produce comprehensible sentences. Transcription analyses showed that participants committed a small number of illogical discourse and inappropriate use of similitude. Rather, the lack of interaction and inattentiveness to opponents were found to be critical as non-linguistic aspects. The current study ends up with the conclusion that workshop program for building up background knowledge about English debate is needed and that the preparation time need to be adjusted and constrained in consideration to the instructor’s aim.