What do you mean Engineering students can’t debate?

Abstract

Debating is considered as an endeavor for language or humanities-related students. It is uncommon to see engineering students get involved in such an extra-curricular activity. It is known that debate is one of the highest intellectual activities that can make students challenged, motivated and fulfilled. It helps develop the learners in various aspects such as sense of leadership, teamwork, art and skills of communication, advanced thinking skills, maturity, researching skills, friendship and most importantly, the awareness of and concern on global issues. At KMUTT, debating has been promoted not only among engineering students but also to other technology-related faculties. It proves the aforementioned claim thus we are here to share our success story. The study aims at investigating the perception of the debate workshop participants who took part in the European Union-Thailand National Debate Championships 2008. The data came from video recordings during the two workshops and two actual debating sessions. Then focus group interviews of the six participants will be conducted to provide reflections of their debating experience. The findings will be reported based on the categories that will emerge from the obtained data. The implications of the study may include the benefits of debating in terms of language and soft skills.