🥊 Horizon: Debate Format Training
Week three of Debate Club deals out the role cards. Learners walk through the full formal format — opening, rebuttal and summary speeches with protected time — and train every role: the neutral chair with its performative script (I declare this debate open… I now call on…), the merciless timekeeper, and speakers who signpost with firstly, secondly, finally. Mini-runs rotate the roles so the machine hums before the first full formal debate in lesson 35.
NEW🔒 PRO
Lesson Plan
- What happens with no rules at all?
- Which debate job is like a referee?
- Conversation vs quarrel vs formal debate
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- Performative present simple in the chair’s script: sentences like I declare this debate open and I now call on… perform the action they describe
- Outlining a case with will: We will argue three points… announces what the team is about to prove
- Sequencing adverbs firstly, secondly, finally and to sum up each take a comma and signpost the structure of a speech
- Present perfect for summarising: We have shown that… looks back over the whole debate from its end point
