PROMOTING STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH DEBATE TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING SPEAKING

Abstract

This article reports on the debate technique implementation to promote students’ critical thinking at eleventh grade students of a Senior High School in Ciamis. This study was conducted to figure out debate technique implementationto promote’ students’ critical thinking in teaching speaking by the teacher, and the students perception on the application of debate technique in teaching speaking. This study used case design and the respondent were thirty two students from class of IPA 3 and one of English teacher who thought speaking by using debate technique. The data were obtained from three instrument, including classroom observation, the teacher’s interview, and the students questionnaire. The findings revealed that the teacher implement debate technique in teaching speaking through sixth steps. Furthermore, debate can be a tool for teaching learning speaking to promote students’ critical thinking, because in the debate process , level of thinking from Bloom Taxonomy applied to measure students critical thinking skills to receive knowledge by means of the ideas’ exposure consisting six categories: comprehension, application, knowledge, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In this case, the students perceive positively on debate technique in learning speaking because it was a new, innovative, and interesting techniques. Besides, debate technique promotes students’ critical thinking, team work skill and group decision making. Finally, the writer provides suggestions that debate technique implementationcan be analyzed in listening, reading, and writing.