7/21/2019 Guideline Debate Coaches
1/2
Guideline for Debate/ Public Speaking Coaches
(The Speech & Interpersonal Communication Enhancement Unit
of IIUM has prepared this
guideline to assist the coaches/trainers of debating and public
speaking at different institutions)
The educational institutions in Malasia ha!e achie!ed a
cogni"able height in debating
competitions# $o%e!er %e still ha!e long %a to go# actors that
hold us back from e'celling in
debating competitions are among others unpopularit of debating
culture lack of consistent
training and moti!ation at the institutions old stle of debating
%hich does not prepare a debatersto face the challenge at the
international le!els# e hope this summar of coaches* guideline
%ill
help the debate/public speaking coaches to address these factors
and pro!ide consistent and
effecti!e training#
$o% to train student debaters depends !er much on the categor of
students ou ha!e# e start
%ith students %ho ha!e ne!er spoken in public are generall sh to
speak (as ordinar
Malasians are)# +et a reasonabl good number of students and
start our training# ,emember
training is a long term process# -ublic speaking or debating
cannot be learned o!ernight#
At the Beginning..
.# +et the group to kno% each other feel comfortable %ith each
other# Create a friendl
en!ironment among them# Make the meetings fun and light# This
%ill help the sh ones to
speak#
# 0ou ma get them to pla some games# In our training %e often
use t%o games1 Charade &
-arachute# In the Charade game an indi!idual acts out a name of
a mo!ie book song etc##%hile others in the audience tries to guess
the name# hile in -arachute game 2/3
participants are assumed to be on a plane %hich is about the
crash and onl one among them
%ill ha!e the right to the onl a!ailable parachute# Then the
indi!iduals are asked to present%h he/she should be the one to get
the parachute# Most interesting part of it is that the
argue assuming a character like Michael 4ackson Madona 5ill
Clinton -ope 4ohn -aul etc#
These characters are assigned to the participants fe% minutes
before their presentation# 6fter
all the characters ha!e presented their speeches ou ma call for
a !ote among all the
participants to decide %ho the gi!e the parachute to# These
games ma achie!e t%o
ob7ecti!es1 first to make the participants feel free %ith each
other and secondl to make
them e'press using %ords and bod language %hat the %ant to
e'press#
8# 0ou ma get the participants to speak formall or informall on
different issues/ topics of
common interest#
9# 6t this stage the participants should not be forced to speak
and the topics should be eas andone the can relate to# The coaches
ma also gi!e some topics earlier on %hich the
participants ma prepare at home and deli!er the speech at a
later training session# $o%e!er
remember that our ultimate target is to train them to speak on
an topic at an time %ith!irtuall no preparation time#
2# +i!e positi!e comments about the speeches# :o matter ho% bad
the speech is ou must find
something to praise in it# That %ill boost the confidence of the
participants and keep the
