Connections, evidence, flow & strength
The previous lesson was about introductions and conclusions. This lesson is about making an argument. This is the body of your answer. Do well with this and you will increase your chances of getting a better score on the communication of information part of the G.B.C. test.
Roughly one third of the G.B.C. score is related to your ability to make an argument and communicate a message effectively. Let's talk about what makes a good argument, and how you can develop one.
Take a look at the sample G.B.C. test result and you'll see that "communication of information" makes up about a quarter of the final score. This lesson aims to get people to make better arguments, and in particular use better evidence and reasoning, so that they can improve this aspect of their score.
You should make it clear that this is not something that is language dependent. It's not what you know, but how you use it, and so if they work on this, they should be able to bump their score a bit even if their basic English language skills don't improve.
Another key concept here is for the students to become critical of arguments, so that they can defend themselves intellectually and think for themselves. The result will be that they can allow themselves only to be influenced by arguments that they have scrutinized; arguments that are valid, supported with relevant evidence, and convincingly reasoned.
As an additional side benefit, learning through reasoning and argument will lead to deeper understanding and a greater recall than merely summarizing, narrating or explaining stuff. It is because you are actually doing something with the idea: turning it over in your mind, and looking at it from every angle to rebut possible criticisms and fiigure out how things fit together.
—
There is a lot to this lesson. It's OK if it takes more than one session.
What is an argument? What are the parts of an argument?
We are not going to follow the ideas of formal logic here, but stick to a loose definition, since that serves our purpose. Suffice it to say, you just want your student to be giving evidence and using reasoning in their answers.
Definition of an argument:
- An argument is a reason or set of reasons that tries to shape the way we think, feel and act.
Parts of an argument:
- An argument consists of a claim and well-reasoned evidence to support that claim.
Give these points to your student over Skype and in the lesson notes after class.
Note: arguments can also be implied, but here we'll concentrate on explicit argument.
We are going to look at making claims, and how to use evidence and reasoning to support your claim.
For the purposes of this lesson, we will look at the following G.B.C.-style question:
Which city is the best city in the world?
Answer this question for your teacher.
Your teacher will evaluate your argument. You'll then discuss the parts of an argument: claims, evidence and reasoning. After that, brainstorm a new, better, stronger argument to answer the question.
You will take your student through the process of dissecting an argument. For the purposes of this exercise, an argument is given. In the practice section, they will make their own argument in response to a G.B.C.-style question.
First, ask your student to answer the question above: "Which city is the best city in the world?" You'll probably get something that is essentially:
I think that Tokyo is the best city in the world because it is very convenient.
or some variant on that. Don't worry that an answer like this is rubbish. We are not going to talk about the ideas themselves. We want to focus on asserting a claim and backing it up.
The flow of this language section:
- Ask the question, "Which city is the best city in the world?"
- Evaluate the argument.
- Discuss claims, and touch on evidence and reasoning (the next two lessons are on supporting your claim).
- After that, brainstorm a new, better, stronger argument to answer the question.
Claims
Ask your student,
"What are the claims you are making?"
Make sure your student understands claims—anything which is up for dispute*:
- Their main claim should be explicit, but they can imply further claims.
- Their answer can (and probably will) contain multiple claims.
- There are different types of claims: claims of fact (Japan is a rich country); claims of judgment (Japanese is a beautiful country); and claims of policy (Everybody should visit Japan).
- To make their argument as strong as possible, reasoning and evidence should be used to support all claims (both explicit and implicit).
Now help them identify the claims in their answer. In our above example, the main (explicit) claim is that Tokyo is great. A secondary (implied) claim is that convenience is important in city life and a key factor in what makes a city great. Note that "...because it is convenient" is not evidence. It is a claim of judgment (Since the definition of convenience is subjective. I like to surf, so living in Tokyo was very inconvenient for me). It requires further reasoning and evidence.
Backing it up
We are now going to talk about evidence and reasoning. We'll go into more depth on these in the next two lessons. Introduce the ideas here.
Evidence is the facts and data you use to support what you are claiming. It is the answer to the question "Prove it!" or "What makes you say so?"
Ask your student,
"Do you think that you have proved your point?"
Where is the evidence to support their claims (ex. that Tokyo is great and that convenience is the most important consideration in deciding greatness and how do you define convenience anyway?)?
Evidence can be:
- anecdote;
- analogy;
- example;
- eyewitness testimony;
- expert testimony;
- established facts; and
- statistics/data.
Reasoning is how you fit the evidence to the claim. It is how you link the ideas and evidence together and should be done in such a way that any reasonable person will accept your claim as true. This requires logic, and from a language point of view, linking phrases.
Side note: Some people will come from a claims-first background, i.e. a more theoretical academic background, whereas others will be from facts-first backgrounds, i.e. empricists. It can be interesting to discuss this with your student. I studied economics, and there is a big debate in the discipline between theorists and empiricists. I was alway more on the side of theory myself. What about you and your student? Which side do you fall on?
Now come back to the original question you asked the student.
Which is the best city in the world?
Take the bones of their answer and shore it up with evidence and reasoning. Note that there are subsequent lessons on evidence and reasoning, so you don't need to get too in depth here. Just make sure there is a clear line of argument and that the claims are supported. Also help with linking the ideas together from a language point of view ("therefore", "on the other hand", "as a result" etc.).
—
* Something like "Japanese food is delicious" is arguably not a claim, as it is widely thought to be so, but let's not get into that!
Now answer one of these questions with a strong argument:
- Why do foreign companies sometimes struggle to succeed in Japan?
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
- What do you think about the Tokyo Olympics?