FAQ of Async Speech / Why Async?

Who is Asynchronous Speech designed for?

The obvious thought is that asynchronous speech is designed for those who compete in speech events synchronously and in-person. That is true, but that is limiting its potential reach. We believe that asynchronous speech can be designed to incorporate students who only do debate events as well as students who are not actively involved in your speech & debate program.

Are these just extra speech tournaments?

Yes and no. Yes, they can exist as extra speech competitions for your regular speech competitors. However, I think there should be some differences in these tournaments and synchronous and/or in-person competitions.

First, they should offer more events. There are no entry restrictions in an asynchronous world - which means your students can do as many or as few events as they’d like. I believe that these opportunities can help our students know what NSDA supplemental events are and even help students find an interest in these. Things like Pro-Con Challenge, Storytelling, Prose, Poetry, Expository, or Commentary are all events hosted at the NSDA National Tournament but are never practiced by our students. There’s no reason why these events can’t happen.

Second, speech and debate can sometimes add just fun events. Things like Radio Broadcasting and Improvisational Duo may not be as technically as rewarding as Original Oratory, Dramatic Interp or but that’s not always what we should be focused on. Some events can exist just to have students practice little bits of creativity.

Third, there is no reason events should be combined. Extemporaneous Speaking at the NSDA National Level is separated - yet at most tournaments, it is mixed. If your student needs help in one specific area or is just better at one specific area - this allows them to compete in that area. It also allows all extempers two chances to compete as they can record one entry in International Extemp and one in US Extemp.

How can I implement asynchronous speech into my speech & debate program?

The following are different ways you can implement asynchronous speech in your program regardless of what your ‘main events’ are.

Students whose main event is policy debate can easily participate in:

• Extemporaneous Speaking – This helps your students research a current event that may or may not be related to the topic and practice talking through it.

• Impromptu Speaking – If your students are struggling to make coherent arguments on their feet, Impromptu through prepared prompt styling can help them formulate the meaning behind a quote and justify their arguments. While content wise there won’t be overlap, there are skills being built.

• Pro-Con Challenge – Novice students could record an advantage and disadvantage of the Novice Packet where they read and also put into their words what their arguments are about. This could be a good synthesis activity at the end of the beginning of the semester for young students.

• Radio Broadcasting – This fun (and short) event is a great activity to teach students how to cut cards. Students have to cut cards and then synthesize them into a short news broadcast Since the theme is up to the student, you could create a theme within your program that is centered around the policy topic.

Students whose main event is public forum debate can easily participate in:

• Extemporaneous Speaking – This helps your students research a current event that may or may not be related to the topic and practice talking through it.

• Impromptu Speaking – If your students are struggling to make coherent arguments on their feet, Impromptu through prepared prompt styling can help them formulate the meaning behind a quote and justify their arguments. While content wise there won’t be overlap, there are skills being built.

• Pro-Con Challenge – This event has dual purposes for PF. First, it can be used for novices who have finished writing their first aff and neg cases on a topic. Prior to competing in a PF tournament, they could read their cases in this event and get feedback PRIOR to a tournament from an outside judge. Second, it can be used for all ranges of students to help with lay appeal. Some students struggle to make their arguments persuasive for a wider audience, this event can help gauge that as the judging pool may be more diverse than a specialized debate event.

• Radio Broadcasting – This fun (and short event) is a great activity to teach students how to cut cards and potentially how to paraphrase evidence more effectively. A radio broadcast relies on other people’s articles and the students synthesizing that information into a radio broadcast. Since the theme is up to the student, you could create a theme within your program that is centered around the public forum topic.

Students whose main event is lincoln douglas debate can easily participate in:

• Extemporaneous Speaking – LD topic rotations mean students debate an array of topics each year. US Extemp allow your students to stay on top of current events regardless of what the topic could be. These current events are helpful to help students make connections on topics.

• Impromptu Speaking – If your students are struggling to make coherent arguments on their feet, Impromptu through prepared prompt styling can help them formulate the meaning behind a quote and justify their arguments. While content wise there won’t be overlap, there are skills being built.

• Pro-Con Challenge – This event has dual purposes for LD. First, it can be used for novices who have finished writing their first aff and neg cases on a topic. Prior to competing in a LD tournament, they could read their cases in this event and get feedback PRIOR to a tournament from an outside judge. Second, it can be used for all ranges of students to help with lay appeal. Some students struggle to make their arguments persuasive for a wider audience, this event can help gauge that as the judging pool may be more diverse than a specialized debate event.

• Radio Broadcasting – This fun (and short event) is a great activity to teach students how to cut cards and potentially how to paraphrase evidence more effectively. A radio broadcast relies on other people’s articles and the students synthesizing that information into a radio broadcast. Since the theme is up to the student, you could create a theme within your program that is centered around the lincoln douglas topic. You could also use this to practice different philosophies - the theme could be a certain philosopher and students find news stories that illustrate that philosopher’s thought.

Students whose main event is a Platform Speaking event (Oratory, Informative) can easily participate in:

• Impromptu Speaking – Platform Speaking events are all about building coherent and well supported arguments – impromptu speaking can provide a small practice stage for students who need additional support in developing arguments.

• Improvisational Duo – The Platform Speaking speeches that do well have a blend of performance within their research. Improv Duo allows your critical thinking students to test their creativity and work with another student to embrace sometimes everything doesn’t have to be logic based and research based. However, Improv Duo usually revolves around a problem-solution type theme within the prompt, so your students can practice advocacy skills while being actors.

• Programmed Oral Interpretation – While this requires more work than limited events, POI offers platform speakers their security of research but also forces them to work on their creativity and performance style.

Students whose main event is an Interpretation event (Dramatic, Duo, Humorous, Programmed Oral Interp) can easily participate in:

• Improvisational Duo – Want to try out a new character? Want to try out a joke from an introduction? What to test blocking? This is the event that allows you to try certain things before implementing it into your piece.

Students who are not on your debate or speech team can easily participate in:

• United States Extemp – do you teach a Social Studies class like government, economics or US History? Many prompts could double as a speaking assignment where students can illustrate items they are learning and apply to a real event.

• International Extemp – do you teach a Social Studies class like Geography, Economics, or an IR-based course? These prompts could have students apply what they are learning in class to what is happening in the real world.

• Impromptu Speaking – Do you teach public speaking or an English class where you want to practice speaking on your feet? Do you teach AP Seminar/Research and want an activity for students to practice working on speaking in front of others?

• Informative Speaking – Do you teach AP Seminar/Research and want your students to practice informing audiences about their topics?

• Improvisational Duo – Do you need a fun activity to have students work together on an assignment that solves a problem?

Are you worried that speakers can re-record their (non-limited preparation) performances multiple times until they get the ‘perfect take’?

No. While I would suggest the 'perfect take' doesn't exist, I do not know why this is a bad thing. The recording process for students is an opportunity for them to practice giving their speech which they arguably do anyway in practice during the week. We also think that if students are all submitting their 'perfect takes', the feedback should also be better. Rather than focus on silly mess ups in fluency, the 'perfect take' allows your judges to comment on specific portions of your presentation and offer you feedback on how to improve.

Won't students just record once and then submit their video to multiple tournaments?

Asynchronous is all about how you approach it. If you allow your students to do this, we believe this is a bad model for speech and debate. It’s our belief that if our school is dedicating funds and resources to attending an asynchronous tournament, students should be required to film a new version of their speech for each asynchronous competition. While some competitions we've attended have required students saying the name of the tournament in their recording, we won't mandate this but we do ask you to consider the best model for the future of speech & debate.

But won't students re-record and/or use unlimited prep in limited prep events?

Unfortunately, this is a possibility. Many of us taught during the virtual days of COVID and giving tests was a nightmare. There's no real solution to this except as a community we need to trust each other. Program directors are responsible for what their students submit. When you enter an asynchronous tournament in a limited prep event, you are certifying that your students follow the rules. We try to film all of our speeches at school during a practice to help verify that rules are followed.

This seems like way more work for teachers/coaches than it is for the students?

It is. But isn't everything in speech & debate? The benefit of asynchronous opportunities though is that it spreads that work over several days. In preliminary rounds, you are often asked to judge 2 or 3 speech prelims over the course of 2 days. We consider this more manageable as well as more sustainable for many coaches than giving up an entire Saturday.

We also welcome you to split up your commitments in any way you'd like - provide judges for only 1 prelim, or only elimination rounds or based on days. Asynchronous allows you to get creative with judging in ways we never could in a synchronous tournament.