Developing Voice in EFL Learners’ Argumentative Writing through Dialogical Thinking: A Promising Combination

Dialogical thinking paves the way for EFL learners to express their thoughts in discussion, be able to convince the intended audience effectively, and provide reasons for the way they think, which consequently leads to the manifestation of individual voice. This study examined the effect of teaching dialogical thinking on the development of voice in the writing skill of a group of intermediate female EFL learners. To this end, twenty-two EFL learners were selected randomly and were assigned to two groups, namely experimental and control groups. Oxford Placement Test was administered to ensure the participants’ homogeneity in terms of their language proficiency level. The experimental group received treatment on the dialogical thinking based on Alexander’s (2008) dialogical teaching model in the form of analytical discussions on eight controversial topics in ten sessions. On the other hand, the control group was asked to take part in the routine written classroom activities. To measure the expression of voice, Helms-Park and Stapleton’s (2003) Voice Intensity Rating Scale (VIRS) was used. The findings revealed that dialogical pedagogy stimulated logical arguments, sound reasoning, and sensible evaluations, and consequently, led to the manifestation of the individual voice via linguistic and rhetorical devices.