LEVEL 2 - DEBATES COMPETITION

TOPICS:
Education
1. Should school uniform be required?
2. Is homeschooling better than traditional schooling?
3. Does homework help students improve their knowledge?
4. Should religion be taught in schools?
5. Is a highly competitive environment good or bad for studying or working?
6. Should all subjects be optional at school or before university?
7. Should people read more books or articles to develop their mental horizons?
8. Should schools use electronic textbooks to save paper?

Privacy and technology

9. Should parents have the right to check on their kids’ activities?
10. Should hate speech be banned online / any social media?
11. Should violent video games be banned?
12. Shall we let AI manage the Internet / social media?
13. Should governments limit cell phone use?
14. Will the development of artificial intelligence help humanity?
15. Do computers make us smarter or not?
16. Should schools use electronic textbooks to save paper?

Family
17. When children commit crimes, shall parents “do the time”?
18. Can a person whose spouse is in coma demand a divorce?
19. Can a person whose spouse is convicted of a violent crime demand a divorce?
20. Should parents have the right to check on their kids’ activities?
21. Should parents allow teenagers gave plastic surgery if they choose to?
22. Do parents need to invade their teenage children’s personal relationships?
23. What is better: arranged marriage or love marriage? Should we ban arranged/love marriage?

Health and Wellbeing

24. Can excessive internet use be called an addiction?
25. Shall we ban international travel during the pandemic?
26. Should all drugs be legalized?
27. Should obesity be labelled a disease?
28. Should health systems be free or paid?
29. Should fast food come with a warning, like cigarettes and alcohol?
 30. Should people who suffer from incurable disease be euthanized at their will?
31. Do all kinds of sport benefit human health?
32. Should shopping addiction be considered as a real disease on a governmental level?
33. Should plastic surgery (cosmetic surgery procedures) be covered by medical insurance?
34. Does the lifespan depend on genetics more than on other factors?
35. Do technologies that ease housekeeping such as a robotic vacuum cleaner, make people too
lazy?

A man and society

35. Should every school graduate be mandated to spend at least one year serving their community?
36. Should working mothers be given special privileges?
37. Should governments limit childbirth to fight overpopulation?
38. Should humanity invest resources in space exploration and search for alien life?

Moral Dilemmas / Law and Order

39. Should animals be kept in zoos?
40. Should those who download music for free be persecuted?
41. Should death penalty be abolished all over the world?
42. Shall all people have the right to have guns?
43. Should the sale of human organs become legal?
44. Should people who suffer from incurable disease be euthanized at their will?
45. Can a person whose spouse is in coma demand a divorce?
46. Can a person whose spouse is convicted of a violent crime demand a divorce?

Environment
47. Should the use of oil and coal be banned and replaced by alternative energy sources?
48. Should we ban the use of plastic, or at least the use of plastic bottles?

Money and Finance

49. Should rich people pay much more taxes than the poor?
50. Should plastic surgery (cosmetic surgery procedures) be covered by medical insurance?
51. Should we substitute paper money by electronic money?
52. Should Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies be banned?
 Culture
53. Should ads use average people rather than 0 size models?
54. Is fashion really important?
55. Do paparazzi violate lives of celebrities?
56. Is watching television series a waste of time?
57. Is it fair that people with no special skills or talents get famous and rich from social media?

Choose one of the topics mentioned above and prepare for a debate with your partner.

Think of an introduction, AT LEAST two points for and against your opinion, including the evidence
supporting your statements and a possible conclusion.

I would NOT let you know which side you would present, you will have two prepare both FOR and
AGAINST / AND introduction and conclusion.

In your debate, you will have to use connectors, especially the connectors of contrast and comparison

The winner in the debate will get 10 extra points to their grade.

You will end up writing an essay together and it will look like an example below.
 Are tests the best way to check a student’s knowledge?

OPENING
Introduces Title Are tests the best way to check a student’s
the topic
knowledge?
Paragraph 1
Tests are given in schools all over the world. Teachers use them to
• Are test the best way
track students’ progress and find out how much they know. But are tests
to check a student’s
the best way to check a student’s knowledge?
knowledge
BODY Paragraphs 2-3 On the one hand, tests show real knowledge. During a test, students
Presents Yes, they are the best way. are on their own. They can’t cut and paste whole pages from the Internet
arguments like they can when they are doing an assignment at home. Although some
for and Google scholar: students and students may copy during a test, there are ways to prevent this. According
against in cheating and statistics to the study by Yee and McKown about preventing cheating, “well-
separate proctored, disciplines environment ensures fairness to everyone” (p. 142)
paragraphs even though the results of the survey by Russel F. Waugh et al. showed
https://www.researchgate.n that Australians, with their cultural emphasis on the “fair go mate”
et/profile/C- syndrome combined with personal achievement, tended “ were less
Attkisson/publication/26537 inclined to cheat be where the West Germans, with their cultural
7179_Student_Evaluation_of emphasis on cooperative learning to succeed, tended to cheat more
_multiple_choice_and_word Another advantage of tests is that they are objective. There is usually a
_association_exams/links/54 right and wrong answer, so the students' grades don’t depend on the
2e02050cf277d58e8e978f/St teacher’s impressions of their work. S.R. Snyder states that student who
udent-Evaluation-of-multiple- are not well-prepared prefer the objective tests.
choice-and-word-association-
exams.pdf

Paragraph 4
No, they are not the best
way
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On the other hand, tests create pressure. Even above-average students
sometimes do poorly in them even though they know the material. They
study hard, yet they forget everything they have learned because they are
nervous. One of the most important stressors in students’ life was
mentioned as the assessment or the tests (Jindal-Snape and Miller, 2008)
with researchers noticing that test anxiety has increased over time,
possibly due to an increase in testing and testing requirements (Whitaker
et al., 2007)
Class projects and assignments that are written at home allow these
students to relax and do their best. That is probably because according to
Joan Baker’s book “Achievement Testing in U.S. Elementary and Secondary
schools “educators have found that the formal objective tests do not
provide them with practical knowledge necessary to address their
students’ learning needs”. Moreover “these informal or authentic
assessment evaluate skill development in an ongoing way (p.38).
CONCLUSI Paragraph 4 In my opinion, teachers should never rely only on tests. They should give
ON The choices teachers have other assignments too. That way, students will have more opportunities to
Adds succeed.
concluding
comments
and your
opinion