The National Forensics League is one of two U.S. national organizations which direct high school or "prep" competative speech events. (The other is the Catholic Forensics League or CFL.)
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.
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 Values Debate
- "Ted Turner" cross fire style media debate
- "Barbara Jordan" debate for inner city youth
- Original Oratory
- Dramatic Interp
- Humorous Interp
- Duo Interp
- Duet Acting
- International Policy Extemporanious Speaking
- Domestic Policy Extemporanious Speaking
