Mastering English through Global Debate

This book will support advanced students preparing for debates in English in ESL classes. Well-structured and logically progressive, it is a very worthy contribution to the field. -- Rob Waring, associate professor, Notre Dame Seishin University, Okayama, Japan Language experts say that good communication and public speaking skills are central to student success at university and in the workplace. This engaging textbook replete with timely, relevant themes combines authentic communicative experiences and the important skill of debate to facilitate advanced to superior-level language proficiency. -- Christine Coombe, President of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), 2011-2012

Brings together the rhetorical traditions and the best practices of ESL instruction to facilitate superior-level proficiency in the English language.Mastering English through Global Debate brings together rhetorical traditions and the best practices of ESL instruction to facilitate superior-level proficiency in the English language. Each chapter addresses a rich topic of debate, providing students with a set of prereading activities, texts covering both sides of a debate topic, and postreading comprehension and lexical development exercises-all of which foster the language and critical thinking skills needed for successful debates. A rhetorical methods section in each chapter integrates language and practice and prepares students for end-of-chapter debates. Using debate to develop advanced competency in a second language is a method that is finding increased interest among instructors and students alike, in both synchronous online teaching and the individual classroom. Students are prepared to participate fully in debates with their classmates-at home, abroad, or both.