Summary
This B2 lesson, "The art of better arguments," guides students to transform disagreements into productive discussions. It explores emotional intelligence in conflict, drawing on Dan Shapiro's insights about identity, appreciation, and affiliation, and also delves into logical argument structure and common fallacies. Students learn to shift from an adversarial mindset to a collaborative one, enhancing their communication and problem-solving abilities for both personal and professional contexts.
Activities
Students reflect on personal experiences with disagreements, exploring their feelings, outcomes, and the definition of a "good" argument to establish a personal connection to the topic.
Learners deduce meanings of key conflict-related vocabulary such as stifle, adversary, and tribal trap from contextual sentences, enhancing their lexical resources for the lesson.
They watch a YouTube video by Harvard negotiator Dan Shapiro to identify three barriers to effective arguments and then match his core principles (Identity, Appreciation, Affiliation) to practical strategies.
The lesson covers logical argument structure, with students matching terms like claim, evidence, and rebuttal to definitions, and identifying common logical fallacies like Ad Hominem.
Vocabulary is reinforced through a cloze exercise, and students practice giving strong advice by converting suggestions into the imperative form, honing direct communication.
Finally, learners apply all concepts by outlining a plan for a constructive conversation on a chosen topic, focusing on identity, appreciation, affiliation, and logical presentation.
Vocabulary focus
The lesson highlights terms crucial for analyzing and improving arguments, including conflict, non-negotiable, stifle, barriers, adversary, tribal trap, identity, appreciation, affiliation, claim, evidence, rebuttal, and logical fallacies like Ad Hominem and Straw Man.
Grammar focus
The primary grammar focus is on using the imperative form for giving clear and direct advice, a key skill in guiding others or oneself towards better argumentation. Students practice converting suggestions into imperative sentences (e.g., "Find common ground," "Don't attack the person"). This reinforces assertive and constructive communication.
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