In its most basic form, an argument is a claim and a reason to accept the claim. Argumentation is the process of clarifying the question at issue, gathering relevant evidence, and formulating the aforementioned reasons and the claim. Although it is a truism to state that arguments are everywhere and that everyone argues, one forum where arguments have yet to find a permanent place is the SLA classroom in Japan, perhaps because argument is conceived as a confrontational, win or lose interaction. This poster shows cooperative argument activities and their underlying concepts that have been used successfully in SLA classrooms.
Another reason for the hesitation to use argumentation activities may be that arguing well is challenging for students. College and high school students have difficulty judging argument quality but do respond positively to various interventions, including engaging in argument with peers, media tutorials and scaffolding (Kuhn, D., Zillmer, N., Crowell, A., & Zavala, J., 2013; Larson, Britt & Kurby, 2009; Wilson, K., & Devereux, L. 2014).
This poster presentation summarizes just such interventions. Following from the concept-based language instruction claim that learners need to internalize the systematic, scientific principles that underpin linguistic phenomena of interest via working with their materializations, salient features of arguments are shown as flow charts, diagrams, pictures and maps, to form SCOBAs, or schema for the orienting basis of action (Gal’perin, 1989; Hadidi, 2021; Lantolf and Thorne, 2006).
These features include common lines of argument (e.g. cause to effect, effect to cause, sign, generalization), their elements (i.e. evidence, claim, warrant, qualifier, etc.), how the elements interact and, most importantly, a variety of arguments relevant to college-aged learners. What is the best book or movie for someone who wants to understand Japanese culture? What is marriage? Is it marriage good or bad? Should people get married? Should I get married?
Participants can see and learn how arguments are structured, how they function, and how they enrich SLA classrooms of almost any level, background and topic.
References
Gal'perin, P. Y. (1989). Mental actions as a basis for the formation of thoughts and images. Soviet Psychology, 27(3), 45-64.
Hadidi, A. (2021). Application of a SCOBA in educational praxis of L2 written argumentative discourse. Language and Sociocultural Theory, 8(1), 68–96. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.19037
Kuhn, D., Zillmer, N., Crowell, A., & Zavala, J. (2013). Developing norms of argumentation: Metacognitive, epistemological, and social dimensions of developing argumentive competence. Cognition and Instruction, 31(4), 456-496.
Lantolf, J.P. & Thorne. S.L. (2006). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford University Press.
Larson, A. A., Britt, M. A., & Kurby, C. A. (2009). Improving students' evaluation of informal arguments. The Journal of Experimental Education, 77(4), 339-366.
Wilson, K., & Devereux, L. (2014). Scaffolding theory: High challenge, high support in Academic Language and Learning (ALL) contexts. Journal of Academic Language and learning, 8(3), A91-A100.
