Why debates turn into arguments
Lesson plan overview
This ESL lesson plan is designed for B2/C1 students who want to improve their argumentation and critical thinking skills. The topic? Why debates turn into arguments – and how to stop it. Students will learn to recognize logical fallacies and debating tactics (whataboutism, ad hominem, straw man, slippery slope). They’ll build debate-specific collocations, analyze bad arguments, watch a short video, and put it all into practice with structured debate activities. Other lessons you might find interesting are: “Business meetings: getting your point across”, “Cancel culture”, “The art of listening”, “Communication styles: assertive vs aggressive”, “Phrasal verbs: communication”, “Phrasal verbs: convincing and persuading”, and “Phrasal verbs: negotiations”.
Speaking: The lesson starts with a few conversation questions about the importance of debates and debating skills, as well as topics that are being debated at the moment, and the quality of the debates nowadays.
Vocabulary: There are 4 activities, through which students learn verb + noun and adjective + noun collocations related to debated and discussions (e.g. bring up a topic, get defensive, change the subject, dodge a question, ongoing/constructive/heated debate, complex/unresolved issue).
Speaking and reading: Students read examples of common logical fallacies and “bad” arguments, and discuss what is wrong with each argument. Then they read about different dirty debating tactics (e.g. whataboutism, straw man argument, Ad hominem attack, slippery slope), and match the examples to the correct description. Then they discuss which of these are common, and how effective they are in shaping public opinion.
Video: Students watch a video called “Why debates turn into arguments (and how to fix it)”, and complete 3 listening comprehension activities.
Speaking: Finally, students are given a few debate topics, along with useful debating expressions, and are asked to debate some of the topics, or their own ideas.
For more speaking practice, you can check the conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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