Oral Argumentation Research Articles

Domestic legal traditions and states’ human rights practices

Empirical analyses of domestic legal traditions in the social science literature demonstrate that common law states have better economic freedoms, stronger investor protection, more developed capital markets, and better property rights protection than states with civil law, Islamic law, or mixed legal traditions. This article expands upon the literature by examining the relationship between domestic legal traditions and human rights practices. The primary hypothesis is that common law states have better human rights practices on average than civil law, Islamic law, or mixed law states because the procedural features of common law such as the adversarial trial system, the reliance on oral argumentation, and stare decisis result in greater judicial independence and protection of individual rights in these legal systems. We also examine how the quality of a state’s legal system influences repression focusing on colonial legacy, judicial independence, and the rule of law. A global cross-national analysis of state-years from 1976 to 2006 shows that states with common law traditions engage in better human rights practices than states with other legal systems. This result holds when controlling for the quality of the legal system and standard explanations for states’ human rights practices (economic growth, regime type, population size, military regime, and war involvement).

Développer la compétence médiatique pour mieux apprendre une langue étrangère : travailler avec les ressources virtuelles au niveau avancé

Gorecka Joanna, Developper la competence mediatique pour mieux apprendre une langue etrangere : travailler avec les ressources virtuelles au niveau avance (Developing media and information literacy education to improve foreign language learning : working with Internet resources at advanced levels), Studia Romanica Posnaniensia, Adam Mickiewicz University Press, Poznan, vol. XXXVIII/2 : 2011, pp. 47-60. ISBN 978-83-232-2335-1. ISSN 0137-2475. DOI 10.2478/v10123-011-0013-y. The aim of the paper is to discuss the relevance of media and information education in language learning at advanced levels. The present paper is based on the empirical data obtained during the action-research conducted with the Romance philology students attending the course of French as a foreign language. The main object of the research is to establish to what degree an oral argumentation task, preceded by the task of planning the discussion on Wiki is considered to be a learning situation by students themselves. The research focuses on a selected aspect of the learning process, namely, on the use of media resources while negotiating the discussion outline and specifi cally, while negotiating its topic, objectives and its cognitive value. The principal conclusions indicate 1) that the task scenario should be based on the critical and dia- logical approach to media and 2) that this kind of instruction can reinforce the argumentative dimension of the discussion.

ESTRATEGIAS DE CORTESÍA VERBAL EN INTERACCIONES ARGUMENTATIVAS OCURRIDAS EN CONTEXTO ESCOLAR

Oral argumentation supposes different domains, like strategies of courtesy, that make the interactive relationships easier (attenuating imposition and promoting agreement). This is why we pretend to detect the argumentation stages in the interaction and the courtesy strategies that regulate a guided situation and a spontaneous one. Also, we present key concepts about argumentation study, stages and courtesy strategies that, following Cros (2003), must be used in an oral discussion in the classroom. Ultimately, we can say that students present general problems as concessions and use cooperation strategies in both situations, they develop an extended arguing stage, planning thesis and arguments, utilizing courtesy strategies that minimize the threatening acts and avoid coercing the interlocutor. Finally, just in guided interaction we find the closing stage that finishes the initial disagreement.

Using Toulmin’s Argument Pattern in the evaluation of argumentation in school science

Toulmin’s model of argument has been used by researchers as a theoretical perspective on argument and as a methodological tool for analysing episodes of oral argumentation in school science. An adaptation of Toulmin’s Argument Pattern (TAP) has also informed a professional development programme for teachers. Research on the impact of the programme on pedagogic practice shows that Toulmin‐based materials are advantageous in helping teachers to conceptualize argument and model it for students. A framework developed from TAP can also be used to evaluate student outcomes when using argumentation software. However, a focus on the process of argumentation limits any consideration of the content and quality of evidence.

Analyzing Argumentation In Rich, Natural Contexts

The paper presents the theoretical and methodological aspects of research on the development of argument- ation in elementary school children. It presents a theoretical framework detailing psychological mechanisms responsible for the acquisition and transfer of argumentative discourse and demonstrates several applications of the framework, described in sufficient detail to guide future empirical investigations of oral, written, individual, or group argumentation performance. Software programs capable of facilitating data analysis are identified and their uses illustrated. The analytic schemes can be used to analyze large amounts of verbal data with reasonable precision and efficiency. The conclusion addresses more generally the challenges for and possibilities of empirical study of the development of argumentation.

Construction de la compréhension par l'argumentation orale en sciences : Expérience menée au cycle III

The construction of understanding in the sciences through oral argumentation. An experiment carried out in the third cycle (ages 8 to 11) Marc Weisser Eddy Masclet Marie-José Rémigy What are the roles of oral argumentation in the construction of knowledge at school ? Using the example of a didactical approach used in Cycle III (children aged 8 to 11), the form of the argumentation (assertion, reformulation, refutation, etc.) is studied as is its basis (logic, empirical, based on expertise, functionalist). This article also examines the more or less convincing nature of the experiments carried out by the pupils, which requires resorting to a second moment of discussion, not to clarify the hypotheses but to read what is perceptible. Finally, the teachers’ task is specified, the risk being that their role shifts from that of moderator of a debate to expert.

Influence of Oral Discussion on Written Argument

This article examines the effects of participation in oral argumentation on the development of individual reasoning as expressed in persuasive essays. Engagement in oral argumentation is the essential feature of a classroom discussion method called collaborative reasoning. A premise of this method is that reasoning is fundamentally dialogical and, hence, the development of reasoning is best nurtured in supportive dialogical settings such as group discussion. Students from 3 classrooms participated in collaborative reasoning discussions for a period of 5 weeks. Then, these students and students from 3 comparable classrooms who had not engaged in collaborative reasoning wrote persuasive essays. The essays of collaborative reasoning students contained a significantly greater number of relevant arguments, counter-arguments, rebuttals, formal argument devices, and uses of text information.

Another View of Group Polarizing: The “Reasons for” One-Sided Oral Argumentation

A synthesis based on persuasive arguments theory but including a revised social comparison component is proposed to account for group polarization. According to the proposal, group members choose between risky and cautious alternatives based on the proportion of known arguments supportive of each but argue exclusively for their chosen alternative during group discussion. This implies that the proportion of risky versus cautious arguments in discussion will be more extreme than the proportion in participants' lists of arguments on both sides of the issue, but no more extreme than the proportion in participants' lists of the “reasons for” their chosen alternative. Research results generally supported this implication.

Presenting a point of view: Caller's contributions to talkback radio in Australia

This paper examines publicly available forms of oral argumentation in the form of talkback radio events in which callers present a point of view on a particular issue. Argumentation is examined as a structured phenomenon whose structuring is evident in conversational activity and which is influenced in talkback radio by its institutional context. The paper describes the complexes of speech acts used by callers to substantiate points of view and identifies the complexes of argumentation, complexes of evidence and complexes of concession, used by callers. The sequencing of these complexes of speech acts within the contribution is then examined and the placing and function of host's challenges to points of view and their relationship to other components of the caller's contribution is discussed.

Beyond Standardization: State Standards and School Improvement

The Elementary School Journal Volume 85, Number 3 ? 1985 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984/85/8503-0003$01 .00 State policies intended to improve education generally try either to set educational standards or to shape the educational process. Although states also seek to improve education through the allocation of funds, in recent years they have placed more emphasis on regulation-setting standards in the form of tests to be passed or educational procedures to be followed. Some policies are targeted on students; others, on teachers. The policies, of course, also affect schools, school systems, and, in certain cases, schools of education. In this paper, however, we focus on how policies affect the teacher-learner relationship as it occurs in classrooms.