Page 307 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 307
ching the writing of argumentative genre through imitatio:
a solid basis for the ‘beginner’ writers 307
3. Purpose of the Research
The purpose of the research was the examination of the influence of
imitation on a random sample of beginner students in the field of argu-
mentative writing in a Greek primary school. Emphasis was placed on
its use in order to foster students’ argumentative capacities in writing,
and especially, in the inventio of arguments due to the development of
topics.
4. Materials and Methods
4.1. Theory and Methodology
The following research describes a classroom intervention with 23
pupils, 11-years old, in the fifth (5th) grade of a public primary school
in Alimos, an urban zone of Athens. The experimental group consist-
ed of 14 boys and 9 girls who shared an homogeneous middle class so-
cial back-ground.
The experimental group had no previous training experience in ar-
gumentative writing. During the intervention the researcher acted as
a participant observer trying to direct the instruction of the proposed
text-model and to observe students’ reactions.
The intervention was influenced by the socio-cultural theory of learn-
ing and by the principles of mediated and rhetorical pedagogy (Bazerman,
2009: 283). According to Vygotsky imitation consists of a necessary process
of “stepping from something one knows to something new”. Coupled with
instruction, imitation activates latent qualities in order to advance students’
learning in the zone of proximal development and tο transfer them to the
potential level of their cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1962: 103; Vygot-
sky, 1978: 87).
Also, according to the socio-cultural theory, learning may be achieved
due to the scaffolding method and the mediation of cultural tools as a text
(Wood et al., 1976). For the text oriented approach of literacy the use of
texts may contribute positively to students’ development of written compe-
tence (Fterniati and Spinthourakis, 2005/2006).
Based on Pike’s (1959) metaphor of particle, wave and field, we tried
to find out which were the scaffolding effects of the analysis and explic-
it instruction of some common topics and stylistic patterns, found in an
extract of a literary text (particle) through imitation, first, to a student’s
argumentative letter of the same content in order to create the necessary
prior knowledge in written argumentation (wave) and, second, to a free
written argumentative letter (field).
a solid basis for the ‘beginner’ writers 307
3. Purpose of the Research
The purpose of the research was the examination of the influence of
imitation on a random sample of beginner students in the field of argu-
mentative writing in a Greek primary school. Emphasis was placed on
its use in order to foster students’ argumentative capacities in writing,
and especially, in the inventio of arguments due to the development of
topics.
4. Materials and Methods
4.1. Theory and Methodology
The following research describes a classroom intervention with 23
pupils, 11-years old, in the fifth (5th) grade of a public primary school
in Alimos, an urban zone of Athens. The experimental group consist-
ed of 14 boys and 9 girls who shared an homogeneous middle class so-
cial back-ground.
The experimental group had no previous training experience in ar-
gumentative writing. During the intervention the researcher acted as
a participant observer trying to direct the instruction of the proposed
text-model and to observe students’ reactions.
The intervention was influenced by the socio-cultural theory of learn-
ing and by the principles of mediated and rhetorical pedagogy (Bazerman,
2009: 283). According to Vygotsky imitation consists of a necessary process
of “stepping from something one knows to something new”. Coupled with
instruction, imitation activates latent qualities in order to advance students’
learning in the zone of proximal development and tο transfer them to the
potential level of their cognitive development (Vygotsky, 1962: 103; Vygot-
sky, 1978: 87).
Also, according to the socio-cultural theory, learning may be achieved
due to the scaffolding method and the mediation of cultural tools as a text
(Wood et al., 1976). For the text oriented approach of literacy the use of
texts may contribute positively to students’ development of written compe-
tence (Fterniati and Spinthourakis, 2005/2006).
Based on Pike’s (1959) metaphor of particle, wave and field, we tried
to find out which were the scaffolding effects of the analysis and explic-
it instruction of some common topics and stylistic patterns, found in an
extract of a literary text (particle) through imitation, first, to a student’s
argumentative letter of the same content in order to create the necessary
prior knowledge in written argumentation (wave) and, second, to a free
written argumentative letter (field).
