Abstract
Debate is highly regarded as an effective method to teach students’ public speaking skills, and students benefit from it. However, few if any studies have been published about the use of debate to teach oral communication skills for undergraduate English majors in Taiwan. This thesis examines the effects of debate on oral communication skills and the relationship between students’ personalities and their language learning. In a class of 21 students, all of the participants were divided into two groups randomly. One group was a control group for the first six weeks, which was taught by a university professor using a discussion format to teach speech, whereas the other group was an experimental group, which was taught by the researcher using a debate format to teach students’ public speaking skills. After six weeks, the two groups switched instruction to receive the other treatment. The whole study was conducted for 12 weeks. Before the treatment, students took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to identify their personality preferences, and the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency to identify their language ability proficiency levels. The data analyzed in this study consisted of three impromptu speeches, student journals, semi-structured oral interviews and five questionnaires. The results showed that both groups did not make much progress between the pre-test and the midterm test at the end of the first treatment, but both groups made much progress between the pre-test and the post-test by the end of the second treatment. Moreover, from the students’ viewpoints, frequent debate in class increased not only their public speaking skills, but also other skills, such as critical thinking skills, organization skills, communication skills and note-taking skills. In addition, personality types influenced learners’ preferences and attitudes toward different oral task-based activities. The thesis closes by offering a proposed syllabus of a debate class for university English majors in Taiwan.