Schema and Socio – Cultural Strategies to Counter Argue Unexpected Arguments in Debate Activity

Abstract

This study reports the strategies in overcoming the unexpected argument of nine English Department students during their study in a private university in Indonesia. Seeing the debate activity as the hardest activity in Public speaking class, this study has the purpose to explore students' strategies in overcoming the unexpected argument in debate session. The study used content analysis to capture the strategies in dealing with the unexpected argument. Qualitative analysis was conducted to explore the findings. Data were collected through a Stimulated Recall Interview in order to remind the students toward the unexpected argument. Riessman (2008) says content analysis is served as an analytical data which focuses on the contents or themes across the nine students' strategies. The result shows two major strategies in dealing with the unexpected argument, they are Schema theory and socio-cultural strategies. Schema theory includes previous education, own experience, and ethnicity history. Pedagogical implications are offered at the end of the paper.