Friday, 11 January 2013

DOHA: The Western world needs to communicate effectively with the Arab world and it should speak in their language, according to Alfred Charles Snider, Director of the World Debate Institute.

Snider was speaking to journalists here yesterday ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Argumentation, Rhetoric, Debate and the Pedagogy of Empowerment, which begins today at the Qatar National Convention Center.

The four-day conference organised by QatarDebate Center aims to bring together experts in argumentation and rhetoric, teachers, and organisers of local, national and international debating events to discuss critical thinking and advocate discourse through pedagogy.

"The beginning of a real dialogue between the West and the Arab world will provide opportunity for doing away with many of the misgivings on both sides," said Snider.

"This will lead to peaceful and constructive interaction between the two sides and the debate will work as a tool to achieve these objectives. The Arab voice must be heard, and it can happen only in the language they speak," he added.

Snider said the world needed dialogue between civilisations, and this could be best achieved through debate.

This is the first time the conference is being held in both English and Arabic. It will be held under three themes: Argumentation and rhetoric, debate and critical thinking, and pedagogy.

Speaking at the press conference, Bojana Skrt Proet Contra from the Institute for Culture of Dialogue, Slovenia, said debate promoted critical thinking and helped school and university students as well as working people.

"I am sure that Arab teachers and scholars are involved in the process of spreading the message, which will help reach out to millions in the Arab world. This conference, being held in Arabic and English, will be a catalyst for spreading this message loud and clear," she said.

David Cratis Williams, Associate Professor of Communication of Florida Atlantic University, speaking about rhetoric tradition in the Arab World said, "There is a strong tradition of rhetoric in the Arab World but it is not much known outside. This must be a platform to spread it across the world and the Western countries have a lot to learn from the Arab countries."

© The Peninsula 2013