Emotions as the core of the development of argumentative competence. A study with Chinese PLE students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/diacritica.6397Keywords:
Argumentative competence, Emotions, Argumentative operators, Portuguese as foreign languageAbstract
Argumentative competence can be defined as the ability to identify and mobilise arguments to support conclusions (Rapanta, 2018). Its development is crucial in educational contexts, as it enhances everyday problem-solving and decision-making (Jonassen & Kim, 2010). To this end, pedagogical activities are often proposed that encourage the exploration of positions, emotions, and taboo topics—activities that require the articulation and justification of viewpoints (Kuhn, 1991)—on the assumption that such approaches increase learner motivation (Cavanagh, 2016; Trezise, 2017).The present study examines how university students of Portuguese as a Foreign Language formulated arguments about emotions. The study sought to determine whether emotions were themselves argued (Micheli, 2010) or merely functioned as supporting elements, which emotions were most frequently associated with a mobility experience, and how they were substantiated. The analysis focused on argumentative sequences exhibiting a Toulmin-style structure (p → q) that contained direct or indirect references to emotions. The findings indicate that emotions served as the core of the argumentation, with a clear tendency for students to justify them by sharing the contextual circumstances that had elicited them.
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