From 18 to 22 January 2019, the 2019 FLTRP (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press) English Debating Winter Camp and the First Canton International Tournament, sponsored by Center for Language Education (CLE), was successfully held at SUSTech. 148 undergraduate debaters from other Chinese universities and 4 invited overseas debaters gathered at SUSTech for this event. This event was organized by Chief trainer and adjudicator Hao Xiaowei, who is an FLTRP English debate training consultant and the champions of many international English debating competitions. He also invited more than 10 top debating trainers and adjudicators from Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines to from the trainer-judge group of this tournament.

At the opening ceremony, Dr. Li Yuan, CLE Director, warmly welcomed the trainers and debaters from afar, and wished the debaters success in the training and tournament.

Welcome speech addressed by CLE Director, Dr. Li Yuan

Camp opening announced by FLTRP Debating Winter Camp Chief Trainer, Hao Xiaowei

This training combined theoretical training with group practicing. It not only started from the hot and difficult social issues, but also conveyed the basic rules, forms, strategies and skills of British parliamentary debate. In addition, several top debaters, either Chinese or overseas, conducted debate demos and commented on them in detail. CLE Lecturer Dr. Liu Lisha, Convener of the Canton International Tournament, said such training methods would develop students’ thinking and English speaking capacity, thus equip them with extraordinary English debating skills.

Our student debaters Wang Jiuzhou, Liu Yixuan and their coach Liu Lisha

Finally, the team from International Islamic University of Malaysia and Guangzhou University won the Novice and Open tournaments. Our students Wang Jiuzhou and Liu Yixuan had very good performances at the Camp and were awarded “Excellent Trainees”. After that, they applied the debating strategies they learnt to the tournament and ranked high among 76 teams with excellent English and sound logical analysis. They both won “Excellent debater” awards.

The FLTRP Cup National Debating Competition started from 1997, which is one of the most influential English competitions for college students. Through hosting the Winter Camp and the first Canton International Tournament, CLE tried to not only arouse SUSTech students’ interest and potential in English Debate, but also encourage their innovation, practice and teamwork. We hope these can better help our students develop their critical thinking skills and satisfy their demand of broaden international horizons in English learning.