Debating as a form of problem discussion is widely used in the teaching of humanitarian disciplines. Debates are of particular importance in language learning. Debating develops students' skills and abilities necessary for fluency in the language such as delivering a message, asking for information, convincing in self-rightness, and also assessing any message, report, or article. At the same time, debates are an effective pedagogical technology that contributes to the formation of not only language competencies, but to the development of creative activity and leadership qualities, oratorical skills, and the ability to conduct a tolerant dialogue and establish emotional contact with the audience. Despite the fact that debates are increasingly used to teach foreign languages, the teachers' experience shows that weak group work skills, students' little experience of public speaking, the inability to apply argumentation techniques in practice, and insufficient knowledge of theoretical information about the rules of debating even in native language often make debates less effective. The article actualizes the need to develop skills and abilities to discuss problems and emphasizes the need to prepare students to participate in debates in both their native and foreign languages. Special attention is paid to the possibilities of modifying existing debate formats to the specifics of a particular educational situation. When writing the article, we analysed the theoretical and methodological literature on the problems of using debates for language learning, studied the practical experience of organizing and managing debates, and offered some educational situations in which it is appropriate to use the potential of debating as educational technology, showed that the formation and development of students' skills, necessary for participation in debates, is more successful in the case of using interactive tasks, joint problem solving and a creative approach to learning.