Debate pedagogy as a conducive environment for L2 argumentative essay writing

Abstract

Debate pedagogy may hold great potential for improving second language (L2) writing skills. This study investigates this potential by examining the effects of a debate intervention on the quality of argumentative essays of Dutch secondary school students. The intervention consisted of a number of speaking and writing activities, including case-writing and note-taking. The study, which employed a pretest–posttest–delayed-posttest design with a control group, involved 135 students from eight classes at three secondary schools in the Netherlands. To measure the effects of the intervention, we analysed argumentative essays composed by the students on three occasions (pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest). The students’ essays were analysed using a range of measures for fluency, syntactic and lexical complexity, accuracy, and cohesion, as well as for communicative adequacy. Multilevel analyses revealed that the intervention group made a significant improvement in a substantial number of measures in comparison to the control group. We discuss the findings in relation to key pedagogical features of the debate environment. We conclude with implications for L2 argumentative essay pedagogy.