Date created: 2024-04-02 02:47 PM | Last Updated: 2024-04-15 04:47 AM

Category: Project

Description: This longitudinal study evaluated the effectiveness of dialogical ar-gumentation in enhancing the quality of written argumentation in evidence-based writing among lower-level EAP (English for Aca-demic Purposes) learners at a Sino-British university in China. The study introduced an argument-based learning design, which incor-porated a series of student-centred dialogical argumentation activ-ities, within an EAP classroom setting. To assess the intervention's impact, the study established both a treatment group and a control group, comparing their writing performances across five time points within an academic year. These performances were evaluat-ed using an adapted rubric designed to assess the quality of argu-ments in evidence-based writing. Results from linear mixed-effects models indicated that dialogical argumentation significantly im-proved the overall writing quality and ‘reasoning’ skills in writing of low-level EAP learners. However, minimal evidence was found re-garding its effect on their abilities to use other two structural com-ponents of arguments: 'claim' and 'evidence'. The findings under-scored the importance of explicit instruction and assessment in the development of ideas in academic evidence-based writing. Addi-tionally, practical pedagogical implications were discussed.