Developing Persuasiveness in Written Argumentations Through Debate Training
Submitted by:
Winnie-Karen Giera
Abstract:
Writing and arguing are considered key competences for social participation and lifelong learning (European Union, 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to enable all students to acquire these competences. This goal can be supported by linking oral and written argumentation.
For this reason, the present pilot study investigates the research question: To what extent does the persuasiveness of written argumentations develop in the context of a debate training in the 9th grade at a lower secondary schools in the FDA-project? Therefore, debate texts (n=18) of 9 students were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in a mixed-methods design at two measurement points before and after a debate training (6 lessons of 90 minutes each). The present sample originates from the text corpus of the FDA-project (N=1024). Using the IMOSS-coding-guide (Neumann & Matthiesen, 2011) (α=.90), persuasiveness was quantitatively assessed in double-blind rating (κ=.828) on a 5-point-Likert scale. In addition, qualitative segmentation of argumentative discourse units (ADUs) and support-relations was performed by using corpus-based text analysis according to Stede (2016). Furthermore, Pearson correlations between persuasiveness and support-relations were calculated using SPSS.
The results show that the average persuasiveness improved by 0.55 points after the treatment (Mt1=1.28, SD=0.44; Mt2=1.83, SD=0.5). This also applies to the average number of ADUs (Mt1=4.7; Mt2=11.3). In addition, on a qualitative level, a correlation between persuasiveness and complexity of the support relations can be observed on the basis of the structuretrees (r=.617**).The results serve the preparation of an automated and digital evaluation program for the analysis of argumentative student texts, which should find application both in writing research and in school practice.
Literature.
Neumann, A. & Matthiesen, F. (2011). Indikatorenmodell des schulischen Schreibens (IMOSS): Testdokumentation 2009, 2010. Didaktik-Diskurse: Vol. 5. Leuphana Universität Lüneburg.
Official Journal of the European Union (22.05.2018): Council recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning. C189/1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32018H0604(01)
Stede, M. (2016). Potsdam cognitive science series: Vol. 8. Handbuch Textannotation: Potsdamer Kommentarkorpus 2.0. Universitätsverlag Potsdam. https://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/~stede/Papers/ArgGuidelinesEnglish.pdf