International Journal of English Language and Teaching 
https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 

1 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 

 

The Implementation of British Parliamentary Debate Style Training to 
Improve Second Semester Student’s Speaking Ability at English 

Education Study Program of Baturaja University  
 
 

Henny Yulia 
hennyyulia@yahoo.co.id  

Baturaja University 
 

Nanda Aprilita   
aprilita_nanda@yahoo.co.id  

Baturaja University 
 

ABSTRACT 
The problem of this study was concerned with British Parliamentary Debate 
Style Training to improve second semester students’ speaking ability at English 
Education Study Program at Baturaja University. The objective of this study 
was to find out whether it was significantly effective or not to implement British 
Parliamentary Debate Style Training to improve second semester students’ 
speaking ability at English Education Study Program at Baturaja University. 
This study used pre experimental design covered pre test before the treatment 
and post test after the treatment. The second semester students of English 
Education Study Program at Baturaja University were the population. The 
number of the population was 18 students. The researcher took class A as a 
sample by using cluster random sampling. Based on the calculation, the 
sample of the study was 12 students and the significance level (α = 0.05). The 
result of paired t test has value of ttest (5.033) was more than the value of ttabel 
(2.2009) with df = 12-1 = 11. The value of Sig. (2-tailed) was 0.000 lower than 
the value of significance level (α = 0.05). This result showed that the alternative 
Hypostudy (Ha) was accepted. It meant that British Parliamentary Debate Style 
Training could improve second semester students’ speaking ability of English 
Education Study Program. 
Keywords: Speaking, Implementation, Debate, Baturaja University. 

 
INTRODUCTION 
Background 

 
Language is basically speech (Bashir, Azeem, & Dogar. 2011: 35). English has 

four skills involved speaking. Speaking is a productive skill in oral mode. Oral language 
is the best communication way for delivering idea, opinion, or others. Naturally, the 
purpose of learners in learning English is for having a predicate as a good speaker. 

The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second-language 
or foreign-language learners (Richards, 2008: 19). Speaking is very important because 
by mastering speaking skill, people can carry out conversations with others, give the 
ideas and exchanges the information with others. Since it’s important, English is taught 

mailto:hennyyulia@yahoo.co.id
mailto:aprilita_nanda@yahoo.co.id


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widely at formal school starting from elementary school up to universities including 
Baturaja University. It has Speaking subject in English Education study programs. 

Speaking II is one of subject in second semester students of English Education 
Study Program at Baturaja University. It is a subject about how students’ may speak out 
their thoughts about many topics that have given from the lecturer of speaking II. In 
English Education Study Program curriculum, speaking is one of conditional subject. 
The students need to pass Speaking I to continue Speaking II and have to pass 
Speaking II to continue Speaking III.  

As a student of English Education Study Program, they should have ability to 
speak in public. Based on the data of students’ speaking I score which was taken in 
June 10

th
 2017 from Mrs. Yunda Lestari, M.Pd as lecturer of Speaking I, only 2 students 

who got A, 4 students got B and 12 students got C. From the data, the researcher 
concluded that second semester students of English Education Study Program still have 
hard time in speaking. Researcher wants to measure student’s achievement in speaking 
orally by implementing British Parliamentary British Training. English debate is 
nowadays widely known among students, this activity has been something popular for 
its image. It is proven that Debate tournaments take place and debate camps for middle 
school students are located all over the world (Bettivia & Leagu, 2011: 1). Debate 
competitions are popular, especially in Indonesia. English debate competition becomes 
one of prestigious competition for students. There are English debate competitions for 
university students that are in Indonesia: NUDC, JOVED, ADC. It effected to popularity 
of English debate in Baturaja. In fact, there are competitions that have been held in 
Baturaja such as Rector’s Trophy of Unbara, English Fair of English Academy, Debate 
Competition of Bulan Bahasa Unbara. 

If we see this fact from the perspective of students’ cognitive aspect, we come 
into the answer that debate itself will stimulate the students to have good understanding 
of what happens around them. Participating in debate makes you a better thinker and 
communicator (Bettivia & Leagu, 2011: 2). It deals to how they cope with the current 
issues and how they position themselves as humans who have great faith in their own 
thought or idea upon the issues. This thought is not merely for the sake of their own 
self, it is to be believed by others. In short, we can say that debate can be used as a 
tool to prepare students to cope with social life. 

The British Parliamentary Debating is chosen as the official international debate 
system because British Parliamentary Debating system offers some advantages. 
According to Agustina and Bahrani (2016: 80), the advantages of British Parliamentary 
Debating are not limited to the connections you immediately make to debaters around 
the world. British Parliamentary Debating offers debaters the opportunity to engage a 
variety of controversial issues. With ample opportunities for debaters to interact through 
the use of “points of information”, the format is particularly appealing to audiences. 
Acording to Somjai and Janse’s research in 2015, British parliamentary debate can 
improve students in critical thinking and student’s speaking ability in communication. 
Based on the explanation above, the researcher conducted the experimental study, 
entitled “The Implementation of British Parliamentary Debate Style Training to Improve 
Second Semester Students’ Speaking Ability at English Education Study Program of 
Baturaja University.” 
 



International Journal of English Language and Teaching 
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3 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 

 

Problem of The Study 
The problem of this study was formulated in this following question: was it 

significantly effective to implement British Parliamentary Debate Style Training to 
Improve Second Semester Students’ Speaking ability at English Education Study 
Program of Baturaja University? 
 
Therotical Base 
Concept of British Parliamentary   Debate Style 

British Parliamentary debating system is a common form of academic debate. It 
has gained support in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, India, Europe, Africa, 
Philippines and United States, and has also been adopted as the official style of the 
World Universities Debating Championship and European Universities Debating 
Championship. In British Parliamentary debating system, there are 4 teams in each 
round (Husnawadi & Syamsudarni, 2016: 125). Two teams represent the Government, 
and two teams represent the Opposition. The Government supports the resolution 
(motion), and the Opposition opposes the resolution. The teams are also divided into 
the Opening and Closing halves of the debate, each debater will have 7 minutes and 20 
seconds to deliver the speech. There are some items related to British Parliamentary 
Debate: Motion, Definition, Case Building, Theme Line, Argument, Rebuttal, Point of 
Information (POI)  

 
The Procedure of British Parliamentary Debate 

A debate format consists of a description of the teams in the debate and the order 
and times for the speeches that make up that debate. The British Parliamentary debate 
format differs from many other formats because it involves four teams rather than two 
(Smith, 20011: 29). Two teams, called the “Opening Government” and the “Closing 
Government” teams, are charged with the responsibility of supporting the proposition 
while two other teams, “Opening Opposition” and “Closing Opposition,” are charged with 
opposing it.  Two speakers represent each of the four teams and each speaker gives a 
speech of seven minutes twenty seconds.   
Procedure of Training the Debaters 

In debating, as in mathematics, music, or mechanics, we are educating students. 
Math teachers never write their students’ tests for them, they leave that to the student. 
So the debate coach keeps his or her distance, too. It is a disservice to the students to 
“do it for them”. According to Alberta Debate and Speech Association (2007: 16), here 
are the procedures: 

1 Call a meeting of all those interested in taking part. 

2 Establish the teams; complete the registration form  

3 Hold a brainstorming session on the resolution, and on its possible 
interpretations and definitions; encourage the debaters to dredge up every 
possible argument, with or without justification, on both sides of the resolution.  

4 Discuss profitable lines of Study:  

5 Keep them on their toes before you have arranged to see them next. “How 
are you getting on with that affirmative case? What definition did you decide to 
use?”. 



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6 Before the debate starts, if possible: Listen to each team debate another, 
preferably twice and taking opposing sides of the resolution. You will not need 
to criticize logical inconsistencies or weakness in either case – each team will 
discover these when they face their “in-house” opposition. (But you can chip 
away at style, rules, delivery, structure of speeches, missed opportunities, and 
so on.) With inexperienced debaters, you might suggest areas for further 
Study. Sometimes you will find, to your amazement, that they all missed the 
point of the resolution, and are chatting happily about details. Shine a big light 
on them; show them the way, but don’t do it for them 

7 Ease off before the debate starts. Do not pressure debaters at the last minute. 
They have either done what they need to do or they have not – it’s too late to 
do much about it.  

8 After it’s all over, hold a postmortem. Help your debaters to benefit from their 
experiences; discuss the strong and weak points of their recent oppositions, 
ask them what comments they received from judges. It all adds up to a better 
performance next time. 

 
 

Methodology 
Types of research 

This Study is quantitative Study. Quantitative Study is a Study which the researcher 
is not only observes but also should do the experiment. Method of this study is 
experimental method which is used pre experimental design Cohen, Manion, & 
Morrison, 2007: 274). There are pre-test and post-test which will apply in one class. It is 
called pre experimental study. After giving the pre-test, the researcher gives treatment. 
The treatment is British Parliamentary Debate Style Training. To know the effect of this 
treatment, the researcher gives post-test for measuring the influences or the 
effectiveness of the treatment to the students. 
. 
Data Analysis Technique 
Scoring  

 Scoring is as the process of marking the students’ achievement which is measured 
by the test. Scoring was determined by two raters. They were Mrs. Yunda Lestari, M.Pd 
and the researcher. Mrs. Yunda Lestari, M.Pd is qualified who had finished her bachelor 
degree from Muhammadiyah University Palembang and Magister degree from Sriwijaya 
University. She is an English Lecturer of Baturaja University since 2008 until now. Her 
Toefl score was 540. She also had an experience as a representative of Baturaja 
University to be adjudicator in NUDC 2010. The researcher is a national debater in 2015 
and 2017. 

The raters gave speaking score to the students by using scoring criteria. Criteria 
are statements which describe achievement level and real evidence of learners’ 
achievement in standard quality that is wanted. The scoring consists of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 
point which the criteria in every point. A point covered fluency, grammar, pronunciation, 
vocabulary, comprehension aspects. The scoring criteria are taken from Brown.  
Percentage the Data 



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The data in this research were made in percentage for giving description about the 
data. The formula was shown below: 
 

P  =        

 
Where: 

P: Percentage 
F: Frequency of students in interval 
N: Total Score 

(Sudijono, 2010: 43) 
RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION 
Research result 

Based on the table of paired Samples Statistics, it was found that the value of 
Sig.= 0,002 less than the significance level (α=0, 05), so it meant that there was a great 
correlation between the score of pre test and post test. Then, the value of tobtained = 3, 
999 more than value of ttable = 2, 2009 with df = 11, and the value of sig.(2 tailed) = 
0,002 less than the significance level (α=0, 05). Based on the explanation above, the 
researcher concludes that there was a significance differences in speaking ability before 
and after treatment. 
 
Interpretation  
Based on the finding of the study, the researcher could interpret that it was effective to 
improve students’ speaking ability by implementing British Parliamentary Debate Style 
Training. Debate can motivate student to practice the language, it can improve students 
in critical thinking, and develop students’ speaking ability in communication (Somjai & 
Janse, 2015). From the result of Paired T-test, the researcher could interpret the 
alternative hypostudy was accepted. The result showed that British Parliamentary 
Debate Style Training was significantly effective in improving students’ speaking ability 
to the second semester students of English Education Study Program at Baturaja 
University. Students also improved their critical thinking, in debating the students tried to 
win the debate by making strong arguments that could nt be broken by the other team. 
In making the strong argumets, students needed to think it in critical way. It is also 
showed the average of increasing from pre test to post test. 

 
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 
Conclusion 

 
This study has a significant difference between the result of pretest and post 

experimental class. The result of value paired t test of pretest and posttest was 5. 033. 
So the alternative hypo study was accepted and null hypo study was rejected. It meant 
that British Parliamentary Debate Style Training helped teacher to increase students’ 
speaking ability. 

The significances of students’ achievement in pretest and posttest both of is 
showed not only about the progress but also the effectiveness of British Parliamentary 
Debate Style Training. From the result of this study, the researcher concluded that 



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6 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 

 

British Parliamentary Debate Style Training is a effective technique because it was 
significantly effective to increase students’ speaking ability. 

 
Suggestion 
For the teacher 

The teachers hopefully could develop the teaching technique because students 
like to something new that is interesting. The technique should be appropriate with this 
era and students’ level and need. 
For the students 

Students hopefully could study hard in high motivation for adding knowledge. 
Implementing teaching technique or using teaching media at home should be useful for 
the students. 
For the other researchers 

Researcher hopefully could develop this research in deeper understanding and 
comprehending so that it will be better in the future. 
 
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