National Forensic League - Definition and Overview

The National Forensic League is one of two U.S. national organizations which direct high school or "prep" competitive speech events. (The other is the National Catholic Forensic League or NCFL.)

Founded May 25 1925, the NFL hosted the first national high school speech tournament in 1930 with 49 schools from 17 states. By and large the rules that governed that tournament are still in effect today providing one of the longest running national competitions for high school students. Approximately 1 million high school students have been members of the NFL since 1925. Well over 30,000 high school students participate in NFL certified events every year.

The NFL hosts the U.S. national high school forensics tournament annually in the US, attracting over 3000 high school students to compete for national honors in a wide variety of events including

• Policy Debate
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate - philosophical "values" debate
• Public Forum Debate (formerly Ted Turner Debate) - "crossfire" style media debate
• Original Oratory
• Dramatic Interpretation
• Humorous Interpretation
• Prose Interpretation
• Poetry Interpretation
• Duo Interpretation
• International Extemporanious Speaking
• United States Extemporanious Speaking
• Student Congress
• Duet Acting (not an NFL event, but practiced by some state organizations)
• Original Advocacy (not an NFL event, but practiced by some state organizations like CHASA
• "Barbara Jordan" debate for inner city youth

While the National Speech and Debate Tournament and the qualifying District Competitions are hosted by the NFL, most forensics tournaments during the school year operate under the auspices of other organizations. Chief among them are the state speech leagues, such as:

• Ohio High School Speech League
• Oregon High School Speech League
• California High School Speech Association

The lifetime ranking of an NFL member is determined by his or her NFL point score.

External links

• Official website (http://www.nflonline.org/)
• The Rostrum (http://www.nflonline.org/rostrum.aspx), the NFL's official magazine