SlowGuess/ACL_2020_OCR huggingface dataset:
- Read the motion text and background.
- Prepare for 10 minutes while avoiding the use of external sources.
- Record a 4 min opening speech in a normal speaking pace.
For opposing speeches:
- Read the motion text and background.
- Prepare for 10 minutes while avoiding the use of external sources.
- Listen to the supporting speech.
- Immediately record a 4 min opening speech in a normal speaking pace.
- When recording your speech, please make sure to relate to the arguments raised in the government's opening speech; i.e., engage with them like you would have done in British Parliamentary debate style, or in any other kind of academic debate format.
C Identify The Opposing Speech Guidelines
In this task you are given a motion and speech arguing in favor of that motion. It is then followed by 3-5 opposing speeches. One of those speeches was recorded in response to the first supporting speech. Please select the opposing speech which you think was recorded in response to the supporting speech. In addition, please write in your own language the reason for your choice.
Note that you MUST select exactly one opposing speech. If you aren't sure, take a guess, and
specify you had done so when detailing the reason for your choice. Some additional examples of valid reasons are "Both X and Y seemed reasonable choices, and X seemed more appropriate", "The supporting speech is talking about Z, as does the opposing speech", etc. No specific format is required for detailing the reason, but please do your best to be clear.
D Identify The Opposing Speech (With Reasons) Guidelines
In this task you are given a controversial topic and a supporting speech arguing in favor of that topic. The supporting speech is followed by 3-5 opposing speeches. One of those opposing speeches was recorded in response to the supporting speech.
1. Select the opposing speech that was recorded in response to the supporting speech.
2. Select the reasons for your choice from a predefined list of reasons. You can select more than one reason.
3. Explain your choice, in your own words, in case the reason for your choice does not appear in the list.
Note that you MUST select exactly one opposing speech. If you aren't sure, take a guess, and specify you had done so when selecting the reason for your choice from the predefined list. When explaining your choice in your own words, no specific format is required – but please do your best to be clear.
This task does not contain test questions, but your answers will be reviewed after the job is complete. We trust you to perform the task thoroughly, while carefully following the guidelines.
E Example Speeches
Explicit counter speech: Opposing subsidies for higher education
"Before we begin there is something that, at least to me, was remained unclear in the mechanism, and that is the question of what exactly is going to get subsidized and what isn't. Do liberal arts studies or humanities studies are they going to get the
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same full funding like computer science or engineering? We think that this is important because no matter what the answer is going to be, this raises some serious questions and difficulties but anyway, we're going to put that aside for now in the hope that government will make this clear in the next speech. So, side government is asking to convince us in the following things: a, education, no matter what age, is a basic right. B, if there is a basic right, then this automatically means that the government is also responsible to fully fund this. C, subsidizing, like a full subsidy of higher education, is going to be a smart investment that pays off in the long run, both economically and socially. We disagree with literally every one of those stages. Let's explain why. Firstly, on education in every age being a basic right. So government basically start by saying: look, we can all agree that primary education is a basic right and therefore, we must agree that that higher education is also a basic right. Now that is a logical leap. There are plenty of protections and special rights that we provide children but not adults. Children are protected, for instance, from criminal liability. And according to government's logic, if that is true, then this should also apply to adults. This is of course absurd. Specifically, the line that we cross between primary education to higher education isn't at all random. Primary education is a crucial condition to succeed in life, no matter what field you're going to to find yourself in. And that's what makes it a basic right. It is also a tool of the state to create a shared basis of knowledge to all of the citizens, sort of a way to shape the shared narrative and the collective identity of the nation. Higher education, on the other hand, isn't a crucial condition in plenty in like a lot of fields and and frankly, in the previous years, it is becoming less and less critical for success. In addition, there is also no element of like a shared foundation here because everybody studies different things entirely, so no, this is not a basic right. Secondly, even if we were to agree that this is a basic right, this doesn't automatically mean that the government need to completely fully fund it. Food is also a basic right, right? And still the state helps you very partially and does not provide food for everyone free. We need to say this very clearly. The state already participates today in the funding of higher education in public institutes but in a partial way. We think that demanding that
it will provide for all of it is simply a misguided way of perceiving what the state's role is. Why isn't it enough to fund scholarships for less well-off students and continue collecting money from students that have no problem to fund themselves, for instance? And lastly, we get to the question of whether this is a smart investment. Now, as I have already hinted, higher education might have been critical for success in the market ten years ago or fifteen years ago, but the market is rapidly changing today and more and more of the most desired job places, for instance, in google or facebook, don't even demand a an academic title. We think that before we run off to spend billions of dollars on higher education free for everybody, then it's worth at least heavily considering these institutional changes, and that is something that side government isn't even considering. For all these reasons, please oppose."
Implicit counter speech: Opposing disbanding ASEAN
"We should not disband ASEAN. So, ASEAN is the association of southeast asian states. As the last speaker pointed out to you, it's made up of a group of states in southeast asia who are working together towards common goals of development. Three reasons why we should not disband it. First is about anti-colonialism. Recognize that for developing countries like the ones in ASEAN like malaysia, like Indonesia, they have a few alternatives for who they can turn to as trade partners. You have major international trading countries like the states, like china, like EU countries, which historically have treated these countries in a very colonialist way. Most of the countries in ASEAN except for thailand were once colonized by european countries or the united states, and if you look back before that, they had a semi colonial relationship with china in many instances, such the relationship between vietnam and china. So we see that there's a history of abuse and mistreatment between these larger countries around the world the more powerful countries, and the ASEAN countries. We think that by working together, the ASEAN countries can ensure that they are a large enough economic bloc to prevent these major international powers who have historically come in and pushed them around, from dominating the region, in other words, ASEAN makes all of these countries that together are strong and
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able to resist imperialist aggression or trade policy, and would all individually not be that powerful. It allows them to work together towards a common goal of independence and it reassures the independence of every member state from international oppression and dependence on one country for trade. Our second argument, is about why we think that fundamentally ASEAN increases development and that's the highest good in this round. So first, why is development the most important good? If you think about the quality of life in ASEAN countries, obviously it varies. People in malaysia for instance have like a middle income quality of life, people in vietnam are much poorer, but we think that overall everyone in all of these countries could still benefit from more development. We think that there is a moral imperative for states to seek out development for their citizens. Why is this so? So when we say a moral imperative we mean that states always have an obligation to seek this out. We think that because, any person would always choose to live in the most developed country possible so that they have the highest quality of life, those with the ability to do so, those who reap the benefits of developed life, because they're elites, should try to provide it to everyone else. To sort of do unto others as you would have them do unto you type of thinking. We see that, development is more likely with ASEAN. One, because countries have more access to trade partners and trade goods, so it's more like that they're able to specialize and develop industries that can then take advantage of other markets within ASEAN, and two, because of the access to economic development expertise. Recognize that many countries in ASEAN, are at different levels of development. Malaysia is pretty far along, some other countries are not as far along. So we tell you that people in ASEAN countries can study in other countries and learn about development and industry, and how other countries have been successful in the past, and use this in order to help their own home country. So at the end of the day, we help the people who are worse off in the world, some of them, some of these very poor people who live in ASEAN countries because we better access development so we shouldn't disband ASEAN. Our last argument is about peace in the region. Recognize that there are many potential sources of conflict within the southeast asia region. Some countries are more closely aligned
with china so they see an advantage in china becoming more hegemonic, some countries are more aligned with the united states. Some countries are communists, some countries are capitalist. There's been conflict in the past over east timor, and there are other ethnic tensions boiling beneath the surface in many southeast asian countries. But one of the surest ways to prevent international conflict, is to tie everyone's interests together through trade. If everyone stands to get richer through peace and poorer through conflict, then it's much less likely that a war will break out in the region. So for that reason we think ASEAN is a tremendous tool for peace in southeast asia in the future. So because it's an anti colonial institution, because it promotes development, and because it will lead to peace in the region, we should not disband ASEAN thank you."
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