The role of using socratic method in improving efl students' argumentative writing skills

If there is a strong relationship between thinking clearly and writing well, critical thinking as a phrase should be taken into consideration to make sense of its applications in relation to writing. One of the areas to apply critical thinking is writing on a subject through argumentation. Written language provides a way to refine our thoughts and it makes our thinking visible. Written argumentation requires careful planning, analysis of one's audience, and sufficient evidence to prove oneself that his/her opinion is worth being considered and valid as the way one intends to do the same when arguing orally (Reid 1988). From this perspective, it might be argued that a teacher should be able to implement such a method in the classroom that will help learners think critically in order to analyze and evaluate the reasoning of an argument. In this respect, used today as a teaching strategy, the concept of Socratic Seminar is first introduced by Adler (1982) who used Socratic questioning for the mode of classroom discussion in his program. Adler also states that it is not possible to understand basic values and ideas through didactic teaching. Recent studies done in the field of ESL and education show that there is an effective use of the Socratic Method on students' critical thinking when arguing on a subject, or analyzing any piece of written text. These studies on the Socratic Method have suggested a variety of results showing the findings of its effect on reasoning skills, critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies. It is possible to say that most of the studies using the Socratic Method focused on critical thinking skills through an oral argumentation. However, there has been no detailed research on the roleof using the Socratic Method in improving EFL students' argumentative writing skills. Accordingly, this study aims to explore whether and/or to what extent the Socratic Method helps students think critically in order to develop and organize their ideas, and write an effective argumentative essay. This research was designed as a case study aiming at improving argumentative writing skills through the Socratic Method of 17 Grade 9 English Class students at Tarsus American College (TAC). Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. To provide data about the effects of the Socratic Method on the development of argumentative writing skills of the participants, the participants' argumentative essays, document analysis checklists, and Socratic Seminar graphic organizer were used. In order to enhance the reliability of the results, students were asked to submit their papers via Turnitin. To conclude, the results of the research showed that the Socratic Method might be an important tool for students to develop their argumentative writing skills. More specifically in the participants' essays, it has been observed that regarding an essay's counterarguments, arguments, supporting ideas, and the examples, students have performed more efficiently when using these elements with its relevance and coherence in their essays. In addition, when the Socratic Method was used before writing an argumentative essay, the participants were highly competent in using text-to-self examples in their essays.