Teaching IELTS Writing Module through English Debate: A Case Study in Thailand
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Volume one, Issue four
December 2011
Teaching IELTS Writing Module through English Debate: A Case Study in Thailand SUCHADA SANONGUTHAI Assumption College Thonburi, Thailand Bio Data: Suchada Sanonguthai received her B.A. in English (Second-Class Honors) from Chulalongkorn University, and is currently taking courses in the Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) Program, Faculty of Education, Shinawatra University. After four years of teaching English at Assumption College Thonburi Thai Program, where she has been teaching since the year 2001, she was selected to represent Thailand in the AFS (American Field Service) Visiting Teacher Program at Montpelier High School in Montpelier, Vermont for 10 months. She has been the head of the English Program Academics Department at Assumption College Thonburi from the year 2007 up to present. Abstract The study explores how effective teaching IELTS writing module through English debate can be for 20 students in their last year in high at a private school in Thailand. The school has acquired Ms Cynthia Luo, a debate coach of the school, to teach Grade 12B academic writing course and this has made it possible for the students to brainstorm, discuss and debate over IELTS oriented issues before they start working on draft 1 and draft 2 of their essays. Three follow-up student interviews and the debate teacher interview were conducted. Active students responded positively to the use of debate in their writing class while expressing their concerns about academic vocabulary and paraphrasing skills. Passive students need more support during debate activities. Additional English activities are introduced for students’ accuracy and fluency. The student participants took their IELTS mock test and their scores reflect effectiveness of debate activities in classroom while some of the students need to develop their classroom learning motivation. Keywords: IELTS, IELTS writing module, writing Task 2, IELTS mock test, classroom debate
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Language Testing in Asia
Volume one, Issue four
December 2011
Introduction Assumption College Thonburi (ACT), a private school officially established in 1961, has been serving 5,208 students altogether from Grades 1-12 with a variety of academic programs. In the academic year 20111 there are 306 Thai teachers and 68 foreign teachers working for ACT. The two main programs at ACT are as follows: •
Program 1: Bilingual Program which offers three core subjects including English, Science and Mathematics; partly taught in English by foreign teachers and partly taught in Thai by Thai teachers.
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Program 2: English Program which offers English, Mathematics, Science, Music, Basic Vocational, Physical Education and Health Education taught in English by foreign teachers, accompanied by Thai teachers.
Assumption College Thonburi English Program (ACTEP) was established in the academic year 2006, starting with Grade 1, Grade 4 and Grade 7. In the academic year 2009 ACTEP Grade 10 was begun for Grade 9 students of that year. Current
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