QatarDebate a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development in collaboration with the Center for Arabic Language and Debate Studies at Fatih Sultan Mehmet University, organized the "Academy of Debates and Arabic Language" on June 7-12, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey.

50 Arabic language lecturers and professors from different universities in southern Turkey participated in the Academy, namely the regions of " Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Antakya, Kilis, Sanliurfa" that were severely affected by the earthquake.

The program was divided into two phases and over a period of 6 days the first three days were allocated to the four qualified teams from the semi-finals of the national debating championships in Turkey, in addition to the Fatih Sultan Mehmet University team, these 5 teams took training in debate skills and how to employ them correctly in cases and identify the methods of analysis and tasks of the two teams within the debates through enhanced applications of the content, with the aim of qualifying to participate in the next International Debate Championship in the Doha, Qatar.

The second phase is a workshop for Arabic language teachers titled: the use of debate in teaching and curricula for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers, and it lasted for three days, with the aim of reviewing the methods of activating debate in the classroom and using this skill in schools and universities, In addition to enabling them to teach Arabic based on modern linguistics and introducing them to the debate community, as most of them do not have sufficient information about debates.

In this regard, Abdul Samad Kocak from the Fatih Sultan Mehmet University said: "We cannot fail to note that the program takes into account the varying levels of the participants, as the trainees were divided into two groups, whose training was supervised by Turkish and Arab students from Fatih Sultan Mehmet University, Ibn Khaldun University, Marmara University and Istanbul University, where the trainers taught methods of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers.

Moreover, we seek through these workshops to find a base of professors and trainers familiar with debates, who deal with students directly, involve them in trainings and encourage students to learn debate skills." Kocak emphasized the importance of the Arabic language for non-native speakers and the extent to which they want to debate in Arabic and even express their ideas and opinions using appropriate vocabulary.

Source: Qatar News Agency