Enhancing University English Majored Seniors’ Speaking Skills through Using the Debating Technique

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-470-9_18How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Debate; debating technique; speaking skills; English; English majored seniors

Abstract

Developing effective speaking skills is a key objective in English language education, particularly for university students majoring in English. Nonetheless, many learners face persistent challenges with fluency, coherence, and confidence in academic and communicative contexts. This study examines the use of structured debating as a pedagogical strategy to support the development of speaking skills among senior English majors at the university level. Grounded in communicative language teaching (CLT) principles and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory—which emphasize interaction, scaffolding, and learner engagement—this quasi-experimental research explores the potential of debate to enhance speaking fluency, critical thinking, and communicative competence. Two groups participated: an experimental group engaged in regular debate-based speaking activities and a control group received traditional speaking instruction. Data were collected through pre- and post-tests, classroom observations, and student reflection journals. Results indicated that the experimental group demonstrated notable gains in speaking performance, particularly in areas such as fluency, use of academic vocabulary, and structuring of arguments. Additionally, qualitative feedback suggested increased student motivation and critical engagement. While further research is needed to generalize these findings, the results suggest that structured debate, when grounded in sound pedagogical theory, holds promise as an instructional approach for enhancing oral proficiency and fostering broader communicative skills in university-level EFL contexts.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tran Thi Kim Tuyen
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/10/16
TI  - Enhancing University English Majored Seniors’ Speaking Skills through Using the Debating Technique
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Contemporary Studies in Social Sciences (ICSSSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 243
EP  - 261
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-470-9_18
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-470-9_18
ID  - Tuyen2025
ER  -