Teaching Argumentative Writing to ESOL Students.

Abstract

Teaching argumentative writing to English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners is one of the skills required for successful academic writing. Theoretically-grounded in the Toulmin argumentation model, this paper seeks to explicate the tenets of teaching adult ESOL learners' argumentative composition skills. It also accounts for the assessment strategies that support learners' transfer from their internalized linguistic systems to writing neat, well-supported arguments in the target language. In pursuit of this endeavor, model lesson plans are provided for teachers to test. Though this research is based on personal experience in the Algerian ESOL context, the unit plan can be generalized in other contexts to ESOL learners. Multilingual learners are becoming an inevitable part of mainstream American composition classes, which justifies the suitability of this unit design in the American context.