Improving EFL argumentative writing: A dialogic critical thinking approach

ELT has traditionally practiced the teaching of argumentative writing through conventional writing instruction and as such has disregarded critical thinking, a capability essential to argumentative writing. The present study, therefore, aimed at enhancing EFL argumentative writing through the coupling of writing instruction and dialogic critical thinking. To this aim, 48 Iranian EFL learners, selected through cluster sampling, were randomly assigned to either the experimental group―receiving writing instruction in conjunction with doing tasks involving dialogic critical thinking―or the control group, only receiving writing instruction. To compare the writing performances of the two groups, a pretest prior to the treatment and a posttest after the treatment were administered, both in the form of in-class 180-word four-paragraph argumentative essays within a time limit of 30 minutes. While both groups made statistically significant improvements in writing argumentatively, the results indicated that the coalescence of writing instruction and dialogic critical thinking led to superior performances.

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