[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591478-105":59,"doc-detail-591478-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","competitive-speech-and-debate-how-play-influenced-american-educational-practice","Competitive Speech and Debate - How Play Influenced American Educational Practice","","Competitive speech and debate are framed as intellectual play that helped democratize American citizenship for poor and socially disadvantaged participants, enabling them to pursue personal social and economic aims. The article argues that game-like competitive forensics shaped educational systems in the twentieth century, contributed to establishing speech communication as an academic discipline, and supported the pedagogy of game theory. It reviews forensics’ evolution, explains play theory and forensics as playfulness, and shows how these activities altered U.S. educational practices.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/competitive-speech-and-debate-how-play-influenced-american-educational-practice/591478/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/competitive-speech-and-debate-how-play-influenced-american-educational-practice/591478.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the article describe competitive speech and debate?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It describes competitive speech—especially debate—as a form of high-level intellectual play involving critical thinking, skilled speaking, and subject-matter knowledge. The experience is seen as fun by participants and observers.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What impact does competitive forensics have on citizenship and personal goals?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The authors argue that competitive forensics made citizenship more democratic by changing the “playing field” for poor and socially disadvantaged individuals. Participants used their training to advance personal economic and social goals.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What topics does the article plan to cover to explain educational influence?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It offers a brief overview of how competitive speech and debate emerged and developed, then reviews play theory and its role in personal development and interaction. It follows with forensics as playfulness and concludes with how forensics changed educational practices in America.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591478,1792210918,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Competitive Speech and Debate  \nHow Play Influenced American Educational Practice  \ns  \nMichael D. Bartanen  \nRobert S. Littlefield  \nThe authors identify competitive speech and debate as a form of play that helped democratize American citizenship for the poor, who used what they learned through the practice to advance their personal social and economic goals. In addition, this competitive activity led to the development of speech communication as an academic discipline and legitimized the pedagogy of game theory. Through a brief overview of the evolution of competitive forensics, an overview of the theory of play and its role in personal development and interpersonal and group interaction, and an explanation of the theory of forensics as a form of playfulness, the authors show the impact of forensics on the course of educational practices in  \nAmerica. Keywords: debate as play; competitive forensics; game theory  \nSystems theory tells us that the whole affects its parts and the parts affect the whole. This truism is most certainly the case when we examine competitive speech in American higher education during the twentieth century. Competitive speech—particularly debate—represents a form of high-level, intellectual play that involves critical thinking, skillful speaking, and a thorough knowledge of subject matter. The marriage of these skills produces a form of play that offers participants and observers an experience some consider thrilling, others believe daunting, but all think of as fun. Historically, debate competitions helped establish speech departments in colleges and universities. Once established, speech department faculties shifted their focus to theory and research, minimizing the competition they considered a form of play. By the end of the twentieth century, that, too, began to change, as secondary and higher education radically changed. Moreover, the change was, fittingly, reciprocal: debate changed educational systems, and educational systems changed competitive debate.  \nWe find the intrinsic qualities of competitive speech and debate, or what we will call forensics, of particular interest because of its role in the educational practices in high school and college programs. Forensics, for example, depends on research, relies on critical thinking, and requires the ability to speak and  \n155  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 7, number 2 © The Strong  \n[Contact Michael D. Bartanen at bartanmd@plu.edu](Contact Michael D. Bartanen at bartanmd@plu.edu)  \nrespond to questions. We use the term forensics to describe competitive speech and debate because forensic or legal oratory requires a third party to determine which of two positions is superior. Forensic oratory in the form of competitive debate constitutes a form of play in that a winner is determined after two teams present arguments for the benefit of a judge or audience. As the popularity of competitive speech and debate grew during the first three decades of the twentieth century, many organizations adopted the word forensics as a part of their name to reflect the nature of the activities they sponsored—the National Forensic League, the American Forensic Association, and the National Forensic Association, for example (Bartanen and Littlefield 2014) .  \nIn this article, we argue that competitive speech and debate in the twentieth century became a form of intellectual play that made citizenship more democratic by altering the playing field for poor and socially disadvantaged individuals who used their forensics training to advance their personal economic and social goals; that this game-based activity led to the development of the discipline of speech communication as a distinct field of study; and that competitive speech and debate served as an exemplar of game theory. First, we offer a brief overview of the emergence and development of competitive speech and debate, then an overview of the theory of play and its role in personal development and interpersonal and grou","cbCainn2yLuja6BY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainn2yLuja6BY","pdf",188241,"English","# Competitive Speech and Debate - How Play Influenced American Educational Practice\n## Competitive speech and debate in American higher education\n## Intrinsic qualities and role of forensics\n## Emergence and development of competitive speech and debate","[{\"question\":\"How does the article describe competitive speech and debate?\",\"answer\":\"It describes competitive speech—especially debate—as a form of high-level intellectual play involving critical thinking, skilled speaking, and subject-matter knowledge. The experience is seen as fun by participants and observers.\"},{\"question\":\"What impact does competitive forensics have on citizenship and personal goals?\",\"answer\":\"The authors argue that competitive forensics made citizenship more democratic by changing the “playing field” for poor and socially disadvantaged individuals. Participants used their training to advance personal economic and social goals.\"},{\"question\":\"What topics does the article plan to cover to explain educational influence?\",\"answer\":\"It offers a brief overview of how competitive speech and debate emerged and developed, then reviews play theory and its role in personal development and interaction. It follows with forensics as playfulness and concludes with how forensics changed educational practices in America.\"}]","Competitive Speech and Debate - How Play Influenced American Educational Practice | PDF",1792072558,48]