investigating critical thinking in the argumentative writing of english majors at a mainland chinese

331 Pages·2015·1.25 MB·English

INVESTIGATING CRITICAL THINKING IN THE ARGUMENTATIVE
WRITING OF ENGLISH MAJORS AT A MAINLAND CHINESE
UNIVERSITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY CHANGES

LIU, FULAN

PhD

THE HONG KONG INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

2014

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Investigating critical thinking in the argumentative writing of undergraduate
English majors at a mainland Chinese university: Implications for policy
changes

by

LIU, FULAN

A Thesis Submitted to
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for
the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

August 2014

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I, LIU, Fulan, hereby declare that I am the sole author of the thesis and the material
presented in this thesis is my original work except those indicated in the
acknowledgement. I further declare that I have followed the Institute’s policies and
regulations on Academic Honesty, Copy Right and Plagiarism in writing the thesis
and no material in this thesis has been published or submitted for a degree in this or
other universities.

LIU, Fulan
August 2014

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THESIS EXAMINATION PANEL APPROVAL

Members of the Thesis Examination Panel approved the thesis of LIU Fulan defended
on 31/07/2014.

Principal Supervisor External Examiner
Dr. STAPLETON, Paul Prof. LEE, Icy
Head Professor
Department of ELE Faculty of Education
The Hong Kong Institute of Education The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. YOU, Xiaoye
Associate professor
English Department
The Pennsylvania State University

Associate Supervisor Internal Examiner
Prof. BENSON, Phillip Dr. WANG, Lixun
Professor Associate professor
Department of ELE Department of LML
The Hong Kong Institute of Education The Hong Kong Institute of Education
Dr. MA, Qing
Assistant professor
Department of LML
The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Approved on behalf on the Thesis Examination Panel:

Chair, Thesis Examination Panel
Prof. Wong, Wen Chung
Associate Vice President
The Hong Kong Institute of Education

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ABSTRACT

Investigating critical thinking in the argumentative writing of undergraduate
English majors at a mainland Chinese university: Implications for policy
changes

by LIU, Fulan

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Argumentation is generally perceived as a tool for critical and analytical thinking
(Crammond, 1998; Walton, 2007). Empirical studies suggest that students’
argumentative writing is an effective vehicle for promoting student learning and
critical thinking (Kuhn & Crowell, 2011; Stapleton, 2001). The present research
project, comprising three successive studies, investigated critical thinking abilities in
the argumentative writing of undergraduate English majors in mainland China.

Study 1 examined students’ performance in and perceptions of written argumentation.
It further explored what factors might have influenced students’ argumentative
writing and critical thinking. The findings of Study 1 indicated that both typical
classroom instruction and writing prompts, among other factors, did little to enhance
students’ critical thinking in terms of acknowledging and refuting alternative
viewpoints (counterargumentation) in their written argumentation.

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Study 2 investigated the effect of an instructional intervention in
counterargumentation on students’ argumentative writing and critical thinking. Using
a modified Toulmin model of argumentation (1958), the intervention aimed to
improve students’ argumentative strategies, especially counterargumentation skills. A
pretest-posttest design was used on experimental and control groups with 125
participants at a Chinese university. The control group received instruction in
argumentative writing (which typically ignores counterargumentation), while the
experimental group received instruction which included counterargumentation. The
results of the study demonstrated the efficacy of explicit classroom instruction in
counterargumentation. The inclusion of counterarguments and rebuttals was found to
be significantly positively correlated with the overall quality of an argumentative
essay, and the posttest score of the experimental group was significantly higher than
that of the control group. Additionally, the experimental group displayed significantly
improved critical thinking ability.

To extend the inquiry into the area of assessment, a third study was devised to
investigate how the writing prompt might be having an impact on students’ critical
thinking in their argumentative writing. Study 3 consisted of two phases. In Phase 1,
the prompts from three high-stakes tests, TOEFL, IELTS and TEM4, were
investigated for two elements: rhetorical function and object of enquiry. Results
revealed that both elements converged around a narrow set of functions and content.
In Phase 2, control and experimental groups comprising 129 undergraduates in China
wrote essays on a prompt deemed “conventional” by the findings of Phase 1, and an
exploratory prompt respectively. Various differences between the two sets of essays

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were noted related to standardized indexes of writing quality, as well as other
rhetorical and linguistic features including: use of metadiscourse, essay organization,
and use of certain lexical items. The results suggested that conventional prompts
tended to produce formulaic responses while prompts engaging problem-solving
could stimulate high-order thinking.

The findings of the three studies may have important implications for writing
assessment as well as argumentative writing pedagogy in China and beyond. It is
proposed that counterargumentation be considered in the writing prompts and rubrics
of high-stakes English tests, and included in classroom instruction on argumentative
writing. It is also contended that a wider range of prompts may broaden the scope of
written language and forms of critical reasoning to the benefit of students.

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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

I am particularly grateful to my three supervisors: principal supervisor, Dr. Paul
Stapleton and associate supervisors, Prof. Phillip Benson and Dr. Ma Qing. Dr.
Stapleton’s kind support, great patience and constant guidance got me through this
research project. Without him, I would not have completed the project. Prof. Benson
and Dr. Ma gave valuable advice at critical moments during the three years of study.
Thank you! I am lucky to have you as my supervisors.

I am indebted to the teacher and student participants at Jiangxi Normal University
where I collected most of my data. My colleagues and students actively engaged in
the project in various ways: Ms. Fu Dan helped me with the instructional intervention;
Ms. Chen Yanru and Ms. Hu Bo undertook the hard work of data processing and
coding. I really appreciate their work.

Special thanks go to my thesis examiners Prof. Icy Lee, Dr. You Xiaoye and Dr. Wang
Lixun. I would like to thank them for reading and commenting on my thesis. They are
researchers and educators that I admire.

I obtained help from many people when writing the thesis. Academic staff at the
Hong Kong Institute of Education helped me in research with their expertise, and
supported me with their friendship! The Dean, Prof. Lo Sing kai, and other staff of
the Graduate School at HKIED provided assistance in my study. Especially, Prof. Ann
Johns helped me strengthen the introduction chapter of the thesis. Many friends and

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fellow PhD students here in Hong Kong and back in mainland China helped to ease
the tension during stressful times. I would like to take this opportunity to express my
heartfelt gratitude to them.

Finally I would like to thank my family. Their unconditional love and selfless support
provided me with the strength to complete the PhD project, and to carry on.

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