Enhancing university EFL students’ informal reasoning on the social scientific issues related to sustainable development goals by adopting a collaborative argumentation CALL environment

Abstract

[EN] In the 21st century, educators need to develop students' argumentation skills for addressing Social Scientific Issues (SSIs). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations (UN) align well with SSIs argumentation. Informal reasoning plays a crucial role in this process, but existing research focuses mainly on individual learners and subjective opinions. Recently, the collaborative learning environment of Knowledge Forum has been highlighted as a potential enhancer of students' informal reasoning, but its effectiveness in language teaching remains understudied. Thus, this study examined a collaborative argumentation Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) environment to enhance informal reasoning skills of university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The experimental group (n=25) utilized the collaborative argumentation CALL environment with Knowledge Forum, while the control group (n=30) used a conventional argumentation environment. The results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in informal reasoning quality, including counterarguments and rebuttals. These findings suggest that collaborative argumentation CALL environments may enhance EFL students' informal reasoning, providing valuable insights for educators seeking to improve students' informal reasoning skills.