"We Believe That…": A Pragma-Dialectics Study of Argumentative Indicators Used in Student Debate Programs

Abstract

The current study intends to examine the argumentative indicators produced by second language learners in a university-level student debate competition and the functions of the indicators in each stage of argumentation (confrontation, opening, argumentation, and conclusion). The researchers employed a descriptive qualitative case study design. The data were collected from two university student debate teams' speeches (government and opposition teams) produced in Indonesia's Java Overland Varsities English Debate (JOVED) debate competition. The researchers recorded and transcribed the debaters' speeches and analyzed the transcriptions to determine the types of argumentative indicators and their purposes at each argumentation stage. The findings showed that students used twelve argumentative indicators in their confrontation, opening, argumentation, and conclusion stages, indicating rich cognitive processes in debate situations. More specifically, the debaters used propositional behavior indicator, mixed-dispute indicator, and indicator of emphasis expression in their confrontation stage, as well as using indicators of resistance and indicators of proposals in the opening stage. Moreover, the debaters used diverse argumentative indicators in their argumentation stage: comparison, symptomatic argumentation indicators, non-univocal subordinate argumentation indicators, univocal-non-univocal various argumentation indicators, nonunivocal cumulative coordinating argumentation indicators, and indicators of acceptance of propositions with restrictions. The debaters employed two indicators in their conclusion stage: the government side (protagonist/affirmative) maintains or withdraws their standpoint, while the opposition side (antagonist/negative) maintains or withdraws their doubt. The results are expected to contribute to the body of knowledge focusing on effective argumentation strategies.