Improving Students’ Argumentative Writing and Oral Proficiencies
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- Khe Foon Hew 3 &
- Wing Sum Cheung 4
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Argumentative writing and oral proficiencies are two skills many students around the world are required to develop in their learning of the English language. However, these are two areas where not all students excel in. This chapter reports two studies that examined the effect of using blended learning approaches to improve students’ argumentative writing and oral proficiencies. The two studies relied on objective measurements of students’ performance outcomes such as their argumentative essay test scores, and oral proficiency scores determined by the Analytic Oral Proficiency Assessment Rubric, instead of students’ self-report data of their perceived writing or oral proficiencies. The first study employed a one-group pre- and post-test research design to examine the impact of a blended learning approach on grade 9 students’ ability to make claims, challenge them, and back them up by producing valid reasons. The results from a Wilcoxon Matched-Rank test showed a significant improvement of the students’ performance in their overall score in the post-test essays. The second study utilized a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design to investigate the use of a blended learning approach utilizing a Voice-Over-Instant-Messaging tool (Skype) on freshman’s English oral proficiency. The results from an ANCOVA test suggested that students in structured online discussions with the facilitation of English teaching assistants (ETAs) scored significantly higher in their oral proficiency tests compared to their counterparts in unstructured online discussions or structured online discussions without the facilitation of ETAs.
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Hew, K.F., Cheung, W.S. (2014). Improving Students’ Argumentative Writing and Oral Proficiencies. In: Using Blended Learning. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-089-6_5
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Improving Argumentative Writing: Effects of a Blended Learning Approach and
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2018, Language Learning and Technology
Improving Hong Kong secondary school students' argumentative writing: Effects of a blended learning approach and gamification. Language Learning and Technology Abstract This study investigated the effectiveness of a blended learning approach-involving the Thesis-Analysis-Synthesis Key (TASK) procedural strategy, online Edmodo discussion, online message labels and writing models-on student argumentative writing in a Hong Kong secondary school. It also examined whether the application of digital game mechanics increased student online contribution and writing performance. Three classes of Secondary 4 students (16 to 17 year-old) participated in the seven-week study. The first experimental group (n=22) utilized the blended learning + gamification approach. The second experimental group (n=30) utilized only the blended learning approach. In the control group (n=20), a teacher-led direct instruction approach on the components of argumentation was employed. Data sources included students' pre-and post-test written essays, students' online Edmodo postings, and students' interviews. We found a significant improvement in students' writing using the blended learning approach. On-topic online contributions were significantly higher when gamification was adopted. Students' and teacher's opinions on the blended learning approach were also examined.
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Volume 22 Number 1, February 2018
Article improving argumentative writing: effects of a blended learning approach and gamification.
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- Corpus ID: 221362014
Exploring the blended learning design for argumentative writing
- Published 2020
- Education, Linguistics
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16 Citations
The progression of collaborative argumentation among english learners: a qualitative study, improving chinese college students’ argumentative writing: a presentation-assimilation-discussion-exercise approach, peer instruction in a flipped learning environment: examining esl students’ participation in writing argumentative essays, the role of argumentative writing in teaching controversial issues: a mixed methods research, enhancing the use of evidence in argumentative writing through collaborative processing of content-based automated writing evaluation feedback, development of english writing skills through blended learning among esl learners in malaysia.
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Classroom Q&A
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In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.
Blended Learning in the Age of COVID-19
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(This is the first post in a two-part series.)
This new series continues a 25-post “blitz” that began on Aug. 1 supporting teachers as we enter a pandemic-fueled school year.
You can see all the posts from this month, as well as the 60 from the spring, at All Classroom Q&A Posts on the Coronavirus Crisis .
Many schools will begin this year in a hybrid situation, with students attending a physical school part time and spending the remaining hours in remote asynchronous instruction. Other districts, like ours, will begin the year entirely online, with students spending part of their time in live classes while working on their own during other parts of the day.
This series may be able to provide some support for teachers trying to figure out how to make this new learning environment work...
Today, Alfonso Gonzalez, Janice Wyatt-Ross, and Kait Gentry share their advice.
The Core 4 of distance learning
Alfonso Gonzalez has been teaching grades 4-8 for 29 years. He is a national-board-certified teacher in the area of early-adolescent generalist with a master’s of arts in teaching and has completed two ISTE Capstone certifications. He tweets regularly at @educatoral and blogs often at Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom :
With schools all over the world redesigning because of COVID-19, blended learning is becoming a new normal. Blended learning has been around for a while and is the combination of traditional face-to-face instruction with aspects of online instruction all while students are in the classroom with the teacher. Blended learning strives to provide students the best of both face-to-face and online learning experiences. Blended classrooms include face-to-face instruction techniques such as direct instruction or lecture, group discussions, and small-group work while also using technology to provide in-class online learning that students can do at home provided they have access to necessary technology.
Online instruction is often facilitated by a Learning Management System or LMS. An LMS is where the instructor puts all the lessons and activities that students must work through to successfully complete the course. Typical LMS’s that schools use include Canvas , Schoology , Blackboard , and even Google Classroom . If you’re looking for an LMS that can support gamification , check out Classcraft . Just as whole-class discussion and small-group work are staples of face-to-face instruction, discussion forums and asynchronous learning are staples of online learning. Blended classrooms can empower students who are introverted or shy to share their ideas and learn from others using discussion forums where conversations that were started in class can continue well after the class ends.
Teachers who never taught an online course, never used an LMS, and maybe even hardly used technology in their classroom with their students had to learn how to use an LMS and put their often analog or nondigital work, assignments, activities, labs, etc., on an LMS, and they had to do that very quickly. Now that many of us have some time before school starts up again, we can better prepare.
During the spring, as we were offering 100 percent online education to our students, many teachers from my district and all over Washington state took an online course to learn how to teach online. The course, offered by Reimagine WA ED, a Jeff Utecht Consulting Co ., called Shifting School: Implementing Distance Learning, gave us strategies to support our students during their forced at-home-online-learning.
One of the big takeaways for me from the course that applies to online learning and therefore blended learning is what they call the Core 4 of distance learning. School districts, or at least schools, should agree on what systems they are going to use to provide online learning. First, schools need to determine which LMS they will use so that all students, regardless of grade level or teacher, are using the same system. Many schools that already used Google Education tools chose Google Classroom . Second, schools need to determine what teachers and students will use for file storage and sharing. Google Education schools used Google Drive, for example. Third, schools need to determine how teachers will connect with students synchronously for online meetings. Many schools used Zoom or Google Meet . Fourth, schools need to determine what teachers will use for recording video lessons for asynchronous learning. Chrome users use Screencastify for screencasting (recording what you are doing on your computer screen), but services such as Loom and Screencast-O-Matic were also quite popular.
With your Core 4, you can provide your students online learning experiences when they are with you in class, and if or when schools have to shut down again and go 100 percent online, your students will be ready because they will have learned how to use the tech tools needed to learn at home! Now that schools and teachers are being forced to incorporate educational technology and seriously implement blended learning because we will have students working from home, all students will have access to this learning model. Even before COVID, kids were very likely to learn, get higher education degrees, or do on-the-job training through blended learning or online learning, so the sooner kids are exposed to those modes of learning the better prepared they will be for their future learning. It is my hope that two of the many good things to come from this pandemic are more equitable access to technology and connectivity as well as more teachers incorporating technology in their courses.
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Flexibility is key
Janice Wyatt-Ross has a bachelor’s in special education from the University of Central Arkansas, a master’s in special education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a doctorate in urban educational leadership from the University of Cincinnati. Her career began as an elementary special education teacher, and she has held such positions as a consulting teacher, compliance specialist, field-service assistant professor with the University of Cincinnati, gap-reduction specialist, associate principal at Bryan Station High School in Kentucky, administrative dean at Cardinal Valley Elementary in Kentucky, assistant professor at Asbury University, and director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. She is now the program director for the Success Academy of the Fayette County public schools in Kentucky :
In recent years, it has been harder and harder to educate students in the age of social media. Gone are the days when students would be docile and compliant while sitting and listening to a teacher lecture for an hour. How do teachers in the classrooms compete with upbeat music, realistic photos, flashy videos, and friends there to like and share content with all from the palm of students’ hands? How do you harness these features and bring all of this to the classroom? Now add the barrier of high school students who are delayed in their progression toward graduation and a diploma because many of them got caught up in the frenzy of being social. As the director of a dropout-prevention and re-engagement center, I am addressing this dilemma every day. One way we address re-engaging students in school is through blended learning.
Blended learning for our program is a combination of digital learning, which can be accessed anywhere the student has internet access, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; face-to-face instruction with a certified instructor; and project-based community-service learning activities. Combining all of this with a staff who is persistent in making sure students visualize the goal of completing high school and beyond, there is no justification for students being left behind. Students are attracted to this model because they can work at their own pace while having teachers on hand to give guidance in the areas that they need help, and they can give back to the community. Students receive grades based on a combination of their completion of coursework through the digital learning system and lessons teachers create based on standards addressed in the community-based projects. We have developed a curriculum framework around five elements that are the foundation of our blended learning model. The most energizing aspect of this framework is that teachers have the autonomy to take risks and be as innovative as they can think to be.
We plan to continue this model even in the era of COVID-19 with virtual instruction. As we plan for what school will look like this year, we will incorporate live virtual instructional sessions with recorded on-demand lesson presentations. Students will still have access to their digital learning program, but this will be supplemented with live sessions and prerecorded teacher mini-lessons that students can also watch if they are unable to attend the live sessions and need additional help. Each teacher will have virtual office hours to answer student questions and to provide feedback on assignments. Community members will be invited to speak with students during virtual sessions to aid students in their project-based learning activities.
This framework is not for everyone. Teachers and administrators have to be willing to be flexible and be vulnerable enough to admit mistakes and not take it personally when an idea is not successful. Re-engaging students back into school does not lend itself to following a prescribed pacing guide or teacher’s manual. This framework requires lots and lots of planning, reflection, and sometimes revising on the spot. Did I mention that this framework requires flexibility? Every new group of students will have a new set of needs and interests. To be student-centered, culturally responsive, and tailored to student interests, this framework has to be flexible. Our framework is individualized, intervening, intensive, intentional, and immediate.
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The flipped-classroom model
Kait Gentry is the middle school learning and support coordinator at Calvert School in Baltimore, where she has taught for 12 years in both middle and lower school. Kait has overseen the development and expansion of Calvert’s Lyceum learning center, which serves the entire middle school student body through both structured and optional enrichment and support periods:
Like many educators, I leapt into the world of virtual learning last spring due to COVID-19 school closures. While some teachers have spent years immersed in the world of technology, many of us were adjusting to sitting behind a screen and figuring out how to best translate the benefits of in-person learning to the virtual world and how to use technology-supported instruction to enhance student learning.
Blended learning, in the traditional sense, combines in-person teacher-student interactions with online learning tools to support overall instruction for both the teacher and student. And with the widespread use of technology in teaching and learning, there are numerous ways to approach blended learning today.
However, as we shifted to distance learning last spring, we had to take the best of blended learning and adjust it to exist in a completely virtual world. Prior to COVID-19, we had explored the flipped- classroom model, which is a popular form of blended learning that typically layers instructional videos to be consumed independently at home, with time spent in the classroom focused on working through assignments, extension activities, or application problems. As we transitioned to remote learning, we worked to capture the benefits of “traditional” in-person learning through live, virtual small-group classes, which allowed students to ask clarifying questions in real time and to provide peer-to-peer learning opportunities, as well as critical social interactions. While there were so many educational losses this spring, this virtual flipped classroom provided opportunities for students to engage in discussions and instruction in smaller groups than would normally occur in a classroom setting. I found that this was ideal for our quieter students (who loved using the chat feature to share ideas) and also allowed teachers to connect with students in even deeper, more authentic ways despite the distance.
The flipped-classroom model, whether virtual or in person, has been a gift for many of my students, most notably those with learning differences or more introverted kids. This model provided the opportunity for students to review new learning materials prior to class beginning, which increased their confidence in the materials and academic engagement during live discussions, as well as encouraged all students to process new material independently. One of the biggest challenges that some students face is relying on peers and teachers to do the work of content “digestion” for them—making connections to prior knowledge or predicting future connections or patterns. The flipped model places a greater emphasis on the student putting in more of their own intellectual effort, leading to greater retention of the material and a significant increase in confidence.
Blended learning also incorporates online learning tools, whether it is in class or at home, that can offer more personalized learning experiences for students. For example, vocabulary development can vary drastically among individual students. Using an online tool like InferCabulary allows my students to work through developing new vocabulary words at their own pace and level. Over time, the program learns what words a student has mastered and which words still need additional work, providing a more customized learning experience than traditional pen and paper vocabulary assignments. This leads to greater retention as well as broader extension and usage of the words in a variety of contexts. Furthermore, the program incorporates gamification to keep students engaged and motivated.
As teachers work through the unknowns of the 2020-21 school year, educators will have to continue to examine and evaluate how to maximize teacher-student interactions as well as online learning tools to support instruction and student development. While this year is sure to bring more challenges, it is equally likely that there will be incredible growth and development along the way.
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Thanks to Alfonso, Janice, and Kait for their contributions!
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IMAGES
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This study is an exploration of a possible pedagogical design for argumentative writing. Our findings suggest that future designs of argumentative writing instruction adopt a blended learning approach in order to deal with the problems of argumentation and language faced by students. However, the current study is only an exploration of the ...
This study investigated the effectiveness of a blended learning approach—involving the thesis, analysis, and synthesis key (TASK) procedural strategy; online Edmodo discussions; online message labels; and writing models—on student argumentative writing in a Hong Kong secondary school. It also examined whether the application of digital game ...
ucing language through actual writing and oral activities (Tables 5.1, 5.2).In this chapter, we report two studies that examined the effect of using blended learning app. oaches to improve students' argumentative writing and oral proficien-cies. In the following immediate section, we first describe the purpose of argumen.
After the completion of the blended learning approach, there was a gain of 1.3 in the average sub-scores from 1.5 to 2.8 for both components. 5.3.4 Conclusion. The results, on the whole, suggested positive effects of using the blended learning approach as shown in Fig. 5.1. Students' ability to write better argumentative essays had improved ...
In this article, the authors share the most current research on blended learning for adults, including benefits and drawbacks, various blended models, the results of an empirical study comparing two blended designs, and conclude with a practitioner tool to guide decision-making and achieve the appropriate balance of online and face-to-face and ...
A significant improvement in students' writing was found using the blended learning approach, and on-topic online contributions were significantly higher when gamification was adopted. This study investigated the effectiveness of a blended learning approach—involving the thesis, analysis, and synthesis key (TASK) procedural strategy; online Edmodo discussions; online message labels; and ...
As the first step toward developing an effecti ve design of bl ended learning for argumentative. writing, the present study drew on a focal group of seven undergraduate stude nts to closely trace ...
Based on the case study of a university in Fujian, China, this paper carries out the reform of blending digital instruments, such as WeChat, iWrite, with orthodox education to teach "Writing for English Argumentative Essays" and employs classroom observation, interviews and grades analysis, hoping to enhance the teaching effectiveness of ...
Improving Hong Kong secondary school students' argumentative writing: Effects of a blended learning approach and gamification. Language Learning and Technology Abstract This study investigated the effectiveness of a blended learning approach-involving the Thesis-Analysis-Synthesis Key (TASK) procedural strategy, online Edmodo discussion, online message labels and writing models-on student ...
blended learning approach (grounded in the social cognitive theory of self regula tion) could improve. Hong Kong ESL secondary school students' argumentative writing. The second ob jective was ...
The English argumentative writing test required participants to compose an argumentative essay on one of the provided topics within 45 minutes, the same as the writing time in the Test for English Majors-level 4 (TEM-4). ... Raman A. Factors Affecting Successful Implementation of Blended Learning at Higher Education. International Journal of ...
ISSN 1094-3501. Published by the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (Honolulu, HI, U.S.A.) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Site maintained by the Center for Language & Technology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
Improving argumentative writing: Effects of a blended learning approach and gamification ... Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research URI/DOI 10125/44583 PDF 22_01_lamhewchiu.pdf Citation Lam, Y. W., Hew, K. F., & Chiu, K. F. (2017). Improving argumentative writing: Effects of a blended learning approach and ...
The importance of argumentative writing has long been recognized. However, many foreign language learners struggle to make effective argumentation and use appropriate language in argumentative writing. In this study, we proposed a blended learning design to address students' problems with argumentation and language use in argumentative writing simultaneously. The design consisted of offline ...
the argumentative essays (e.g., whether the learner made good use of relevant information and properly developed ideas in the essay), a meeting ses sion was held to resolve the issue.
Blended learning for our program is a combination of digital learning, which can be accessed anywhere the student has internet access, 24 hours a day, seven days a week; face-to-face instruction ...
Essay On Blended Learning. 725 Words3 Pages. What is Blended Learning? This method of learning-which combines classroom and online education. "To integrate online with traditional face-to-face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner". Since the emergence of the internet 2.0 more and more students spend their time on ...
The participants were 44 students whom equally grouped into two groups of learning. essay writing: an experimental and a co ntrol. The experimental class had a blended learning approach, w hile ...
the blended learning design for argumentative essays [13]. Cons equently, an ever-growing number of linguists have started a pplying blended learning game design s into argumentativ e writing [13].