Aralia offers debate competition preparation courses for students of all levels. These courses are designed to help students develop the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in debate competitions. Led by experienced debate educators, these courses cover a wide range of topics including argumentation, research, public speaking, and more.
The Essential Communication Skills class is specifically tailored for incoming middle and high school students, focusing on crucial skills that will enable them to thrive both academically and socially in their new environment.
New York Times Audio Stories Podcast Contest invites students to create an original podcast to inform or entertain in 5 minutes or less.
The class is designed to help prepare international middle school students to grow in confidence and excel in oral presentations to their fellow students and administrative/entrance school staff. Additionally, students will be introduced to the major types of speech presentations they are likely to be assigned while completing a public speaking and/or introductory communication course during their middle and high school careers.
The Cosmos Championship is a global, virtual debating platform for high school students of any skill level. Almost every week, the championship hosts several debate competitions to accommodate all the regions of the world.
The World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship is an annual international English language debating and public speaking tournament for individual high school-level students representing different countries.
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The Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament (old name: Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament), held in Cambridge each Presidents’ Day Weekend, is the largest and most prestigious high school speech and debate tournament in the country, providing opportunities for students to compete in Policy Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Student Congress, and a variety of individual and duo speech events.
The American Debate League was founded in 2014 as a nonprofit organization. The organization aims to provide young people with opportunities to develop debating, speaking, and literacy skills through competitions.
The World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) is an annual English-language debate competition for high school-level teams representing different countries.
National Speech and Debate Tournament has been held by National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) since 1931 and is considered the pinnacle of High School speech and debate. Students compete in preliminary rounds in their respective events before being selected for the finals. After qualifying tournaments, 2-7 finalists move forward with the national debate competition.
The accent reduction class focuses on understanding and strengthening the unique sounds and structures that make up the “neutral” dialect. While there are many dialects throughout America, it is the neutral accent commonly practiced by public speakers and officials. Radio DJs, TV news anchors, and even most Hollywood movie actors use the neutral accent to convey their message to the largest group of Americans possible. By eliminating accents in communication, we can more easily connect to our audience and erase any misunderstandings or unconscious bias from a foreign dialect, whether domestic or international.
In this course, students will research, write and deliver their own TED Talk speeches. Students will be able to participate in speech competitions at the high school or university level. Students will build a solid foundation in oral expression and learn how to express themselves confidently and clearly in English.
This Public Speaking and Debate class will offer the opportunity to speak and listen to others talk only as much as possible. We will alternate between learning the structure of different types of speeches and making presentations by one student to the rest of the class. After each speech by students, we will have a critique from the peers, and the teacher. They will also be required and coached on how to participate in the discussion and to critique their peers.
