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Teaching linguistic argumentation through a writing-intensive approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Panayiotis A. Pappas ,
Maite Taboada  and
Kathryn Alexander
Panayiotis A. Pappas*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
Maite Taboada*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
Kathryn Alexander*
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
*
Pappas Linguistics, SFU, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby BC, Canada V5A 1S6, panayiotis_pappas@sfu.ca
mtaboada@sfu.ca
kalexander@sfu.ca
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Abstract

We present the results of a study on whether writing-intensive learning techniques can assist beginner students in learning linguistic argumentation. The analysis is based on student submissions (eighty submissions from twenty students, 22,328 words) from a typical Introduction to Linguistics course, which were analyzed with the Coh-Metrix tool (McNamara et al. 2014), a suite of tests that measures cohesion of the linguistic formulation of the text and coherence of the mental representation. The essays show improvement in descriptive measures (lexical diversity, use of content words) and greater simplicity in terms of readability, suggesting a growth in the sophistication of the students' argumentation and disciplinary knowledge.

Keywords

linguistic argumentationundergraduate educationwriting studieswriting-intensive learningcohesioncoherenceCoh-Metrix

Information

Type
Teaching Linguistics
Information
Language , Volume 95 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. e339 - e363
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Linguistic Society of America

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