Writing an argumentative essay: the use of meta-discursive didactic sequences to improve students' skills

Abstract

The study purpose is to explore how the application of a meta-discursive didactic sequence organizes and schematizes the development and writing of an argumentative essay. In the course of the study, a corpus of argumentative essays (90 works) written in English by 4th-year students of technical specialties of the Technical Institute (branch) of the North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Amosov (n = 45), Moscow Polytechnic University (n = 45) and the University of International Business (Almaty, the Republic of Kazakhstan) (n = 45) was considered. The observation lasted 13 weeks and consisted of three stages. According to the research results, 71.1% of students from the Technical Institute (branch) of NEFU correctly used the essay superstructure, 57.7% – macrostructure, and 42.2% – microstructure. It was found that the learning strategies focused on the meta-discursive approach are better developed among bilingual students. At the same time, monolingual students from Moscow Polytechnic University showed the following results: 28.8% – mastered the superstructure of writing an argumentative essay, 35.5% – macrostructure, and 46.6% – microstructure. Further research will be aimed at separating these categories and a step-by-step analysis of the process of argumentative essay writing following a meta-discursive sequence. The study limitations were manifested in the bilingualism of one category of students and the monolingualism of the other, which significantly affects the outcome of the data obtained.