Argumentation &amp; second language writing: Are we missing the boat?

Hirvela, Alan

doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2017.05.002

Cited by 65 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The ability to write is important for students' educational careers (Preiss, Castillo, Grigorenko, & Manzi, 2013), especially since students are often assessed in terms of their ability to write argumentative texts (Brown, 2010;Hirvela, 2017;McColly, 1970;Wingate, 2012). Important in argumentative writing is the development of an argument, which requires students to take a position (often in relation to sources) and provide warrants and backings for this position.…”

Section: Argumentative Writing and The Context Of Flandersmentioning

confidence: 99%

When teachers compare argumentative texts: Decisions informed by multiple complex aspects of text quality

Lesterhuis¹,

Daal²,

Gasse³

et al. 2018

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

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Insight into aspects that guide teachers' decisions when assessing student text quality is crucial to an understanding of the validity of text scores. Such research has been lacking in the context of comparative methods which are, however, increasingly being used for text assessment purposes. This study reports on the aspects of argumentative texts that guide Flemish teachers' decisions when using the comparative judgement method. In using this method, teachers indicate which text of a pair is of higher quality. 27 teachers explained 23 comparative judgements in a decision statement, when comparing randomly selected texts written by 135 students in their fifth year of general secondary education. This resulted in 596 statements referring to 2054 segments of aspects of text quality. Firstly, an inductive analysis revealed that teachers consider a wide range of aspects with regard to text quality when making comparison decisions. Secondly, the deductive aggregation of these aspects showed that most decisions are informed by the organisation and argumentation of the texts. Lastly, almost all statements reported complex aspects of text quality, whereas half of the decision statements also showed a reflection on the rule-applying aspects of text quality. We conclude that comparative judgement encourages teachers to make decisions on complex and multiple aspects of text quality. Further research should elaborate on whether the aspects that informed teachers' decisions are related to the text they choose, and whether teachers differ in the aspects to which they refer.

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Section: Argumentative Writing and The Context Of Flandersmentioning

confidence: 99%

When teachers compare argumentative texts: Decisions informed by multiple complex aspects of text quality

Lesterhuis¹,

Daal²,

Gasse³

et al. 2018

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In their L1 literacy education, writing with exquisitely ornate diction was an important criteria to evaluate their writing ability. Hence, this group of Chinese students move to EAL writing having already acquired the argumentative practices of their native language taught in their L1 educational context [14], which did not give the same weight to hard data as the western academia does. In their L1 education, they were taught to use a different kind of 'reason' and 'evidence' ( [34], p. 84) to support their argument.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Another fundamental, yet generally overlooked challenge for EAL novice writers is learning argumentative writing [14,31,32,34]. Both native-speaking and EAL student writers need to learn to formulate, to verify and to evaluate arguments in research writing.…”

Section: Eal Students' Epistemology Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though this ability to argue is rooted in human nature [34], the actual abilities and forms of arguing can vary with individuals due to different sociocultural contexts. EAL students move to L2 writing already possessing culturally shaped notions of argumentative writing from their L1 education [14,38]. They might have insufficient education about argumentative writing.…”

Section: Eal Students' Epistemology Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linguistic and Epistemology Challenges in Research Writing: An Exploratory Study of Chinese Graduate Students’ Academic Writing Experiences

Wang¹

2019

IJLL

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The purpose of this grounded theory study was to examine the difficulties faced and strategies used by Chinese graduate students with English academic writing at an American university. Eight graduate students majoring in humanities and social sciences at different stages of their graduate studies were interviewed. The interview data illustrated the types of difficulties that these students encountered and the types of coping strategies they used in the process of adapting to the requirement of specific disciplinary written discourses. Difficulties and problems varied across the curriculum and the individuals. Some common problems included insufficient linguistic knowledge, being unfamiliar with academic writing conventions and gaps in the epistemological assumptions between U.S. and China's academia. One of the biggest gaps is lack of critical thinking skills among Chinese students and different attitudes towards verification in writing. These difficulties and problems reflect the complexity of writing as a socially constructed activity that requires necessary linguistic knowledge as well as familiarization with cultural models, i.e., ways of thinking, believing and valuing that are associated with the disciplinary discourses. The results of the study suggest that this group of Chinese graduate students had received limited training in English academic writing before they came to U.S and they brought with them to the U.S. classrooms writing experiences that at times differ from the writing conventions of the American academia and, therefore, need assistance in order to successfully adjust to the new academic environment. This study also showed that there is not enough social help for those international graduate students. For most of them, adjusting to the U.S. academic written discourse is mainly a trial-and-error process. Therefore efficient social help from the peers, professors and curriculum is needed.

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“…The development of argumentative writing is supposed to be essential (Mercer, 2009) as it is related to the experiences of both academic life and everyday life (Kuhn, 2005). Hirvela (2017) suggests more research on argumentative writing instruction as the current studies are insufficient, particularly on the teaching conceptualization and teaching practice. Argumentation is hard to acquire because it involves both thinking skills and discourse skills (Kuhn, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

A Case Study on the Conceptualization and Teaching Practice of L2 Argumentative Writing Instruction

Chen¹

2020

ELT

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Argumentative writing is one of the main writing types in Second Language Writing (SLW) instruction, as it links with the assessment of language capacity in tests. It is a common course for students of tertiary education, but few instructors have a clear comprehension of it. With the goal of giving circumspect teaching implications, this study serves as an illustration for argumentative writing lecturers in higher education. In this study, semi-structured interview, classroom observation and collected written drafts are used as research tools to discover the conceptualization and teaching practice of two lecturers who are instructing English-major sophomores. The findings show that different teaching beliefs (human-oriented and task-oriented) lead to different teaching process in argumentative writing class. Besides, the assessment criteria and students’ response are revealed to understand the effects of those instructions accordingly.

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Argumentation & second language writing: Are we missing the boat?

Cited by 65 publications

References 19 publications

When teachers compare argumentative texts: Decisions informed by multiple complex aspects of text quality

When teachers compare argumentative texts: Decisions informed by multiple complex aspects of text quality

Linguistic and Epistemology Challenges in Research Writing: An Exploratory Study of Chinese Graduate Students’ Academic Writing Experiences

A Case Study on the Conceptualization and Teaching Practice of L2 Argumentative Writing Instruction

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