A2 Debate Motions for Late Teens (16-18)
Watch a tutorial on how to run this activity with your class
Explore More Questions
A2 Debate Motions for Late Teens (16-18)
Debate is the activity that makes A2 teenagers forget they are practising English. The competitive team format, the permission to disagree, and the clear structure all appeal to the teenage instinct to argue. These 75 motions use simple language about topics 16-18 year olds care about: school rules, phone use, homework, social media, and fairness. Every motion can be understood at A2 level, leaving students free to focus on building their arguments.
At A2, the debate itself matters less than the act of forming and expressing opinions in English. A teenager who says 'Homework is bad because students are tired and they need free time' has produced a claim, a reason, and a supporting point, which is a remarkable amount of structured language for an A2 speaker. Debate creates this output naturally.
Why A2 teens love debate
Provide sentence starters written on the board before the debate begins: 'We think... because...,' 'For example...,' 'Also...,' 'But the other team said... and we disagree because...' These frames let A2 teens participate in the debate format without needing to generate discourse structures from scratch.
Scaffolding arguments at A2
Keep speeches to 30-45 seconds and give generous preparation time (3 minutes). Preparation is where the most English gets used at A2 because teams discuss ideas, negotiate who says what, and practise their sentences together. The debate speech itself is often a performance of what was rehearsed in preparation.