HBDA 5360 - Debate Club

Welcome to this debate club Speaking English, we will practice debating in teams: two teams of five students, facing each other on a random motion, being assessed on arguments, presentation (structure, rhetorics…), teamwork, engagement (the ability to improvise and answer to the other team) and star quality (charisma).

The workshop will focus on each of these criteria, giving students tools to improve their debating skills, and, of course debates will be organized throughout the semester to put their learning in practice. Five volunteers will be given the chance to join Sciences Po official debate team, and therefore participate in the French debating association Tournament, with many other schools, during which the Final takes place at the French National Assembly (where Sciences Po proudly was in 2014 and 2019).

In order to follow this course, students need to be able to understand and speak English (B1/B2). It is absolutely not required to speak a perfect English, grammatical errors and/or difficulty with pronunciation don’t matter, the students simply need to understand when speaks an every day life English and be able to answer it in an understandable way.

10 sessions of 2 hours each.