Saturday 17 April 2010

Mace Class Debate Report

This is a report from one of our students in IES LA Minilla on the last class debate. It is short and straight to the point, but I felt it deserved to be read by more people, so here it is. For those unfamiliar with the concept of debating, read these:

http://aclil2climb.blogspot.com/2009/07/debate-in-classroom-all-you-need-to.html  and

http://aclil2climb.blogspot.com/2009/11/class-debate-tasks-for-everyone.html

THE CRITICAL SIGHT

The motion for the debate was "Downloading films and music from the Internet is not immoral".

The debate took place in La Minilla High School on 26th February 2010.

The proposition team was formed by Manuel Masseratti, the first speaker, Fernando Acosta, the second speaker and Sandro Artiles, the third speaker.

The opposition team was represented by Stefania Valle, speaker number one, Ana Isabel Márquez, speaker number two and Nayara Magro.

The debate was chaired by Himar Quesada, and the judges were Nichel Quesada, Héctor Aguiar and Dong Hui Kim.

The proposition team’s main arguments were that singers actually earn little from the sales of CDs, CDs are overpriced, and that what people wanted was not spending money. They also said downloading is legal if the downloaded files are not shared.

The opposition team, on the other hand, argued that singers and record companies willl not earn any money if they cannot sell their CDs. They also compare downloading files with stealing and that we are putting the future of the artistes in danger.

Comments from the audience were invited before the summaries (given by the third speakers), and after the two teams had finished giving their summaries, while the judges were making their decisions outside the classroom. There were people for and against the motion. Most of the audience's comments were similar to the arguments presented by the two teams.

My personal opinion is that downloading films and music from the Internet is moral and good because you are exposed to more culture and you are not really hurting anyone. Besides, if you only want to have one song, why must you pay for the whole CD? I also believe that a singer makes more money from concerts than from the sale of CDs.

In my opinion this debate was better than the previous one because it was more organized. Unfortunately, however, I must say that almost everyone merely read from their notes, and the main purpose of having debates is to encourage people to SPEAK, not to READ.

The speakers also committed some mistakes. For instance, I could not understand anything of what Manuel or Sandro said. Furthermore, there were quite a few badly constructed sentences, and some did not look at the audience, but looked down at their notes instead. Stefania spoke very fast, but  Ana Isabel's speech was understandable. Nayara did a great job especially since she does not know much English; she did not read, and she had good arguments.

Finally, all the speakers, except Fernando, did not make full use of their allocated time of five minutes, but instead, most spoke for far less than four minutes.

The judges declared the proposition team as the winners.

José Carlos Castillo Acosta
4º ESO A

4 comments:

  1. eliana 2º E.S.O28 April 2010 at 16:01

    <span>Hi Chew ...Today I cannot go in the evening to the institute tomorrow in the hour of the playtime Goretti already explain me that to do oK? :) </span>

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ok, Eliana. I'll see you on Friday. If you still have problems, we'll talk about it then. 8-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. eliana 2º E.S.O7 July 2011 at 09:01

    <span>Hi Chew ...Today I cannot go in the evening to the institute tomorrow in the hour of the playtime Goretti already explain me that to do oK? :) </span>

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ok, Eliana. I'll see you on Friday. If you still have problems, we'll talk about it then. 8-)

    ReplyDelete

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