Logical Fallacies – Class Observation – (2 hours)

Greetings, homework, etc… Let’s jump to what was actually interesting in T.’s class today.

T. wanted to introduce the idea of Logical Fallacies in class. I thought this was particularly interesting to help students use and develop more cognitive ideas as opposed to learning the rules of English. It is crucial for students to understand that English is NOT an art that needs to be mastered, but rather a TOOL that they use to convey their thoughts.

The importance of the logical fallacies is to engage students in understanding that their opinions, themselves, are of the utmost importance, not the vehicle they use to have them heard. Everyone is always so focused on correctness and how a message is transferred that no one cares about the result, and that result is lost all for the sake of correct English. Don’t get me wrong, correctness is important too, however, it is second to result. Here’s why:

I grew up learning that memorizing all the rules and spelling correctly are the most desired skills in English. I lost points in comprehension passages because my spelling and my grammar weren’t up to par even though my idea was correct. The form was more valued than the content. How does a student like me gain confidence in speaking when I need to focus on the way I respond, or the way I use my grammar and vocabulary? I stopped listening to you when I started worrying about my response…

This is what I feel are building up in students… This activity on logical fallacies opened my eyes to this idea that students are so self aware when it comes to responding in correct english that they would rather not say a word, and observe from the bleachers, or even under the bleachers.

Here are my questions that this observation has brought:

1. How do you break this idea that your students are judged on correctness rather than clarity? Make them understand that, as teachers, we care about their ideas and their opinions, and that it’s ok to make mistakes because mistakes are the boundaries of language acquisition.
2. How do we instill in students that content is more important than the form?
3. How do we build their curious minds to ask questions and defy ideas for the sake of seeking knowledge? To develop critical thinkers, identify and neutralize the logical fallacies?

I read something in my research today about traditional learning methods: “I wrote this cookbook, remember the recipe.”

T. opened my eyes with his discussions today. He doesn’t want students to remember the recipes, he wants them to make their own.

I used to be a firm believer that the explicit models (understanding the rules and mastering them) were crucial to understand the logical patterns behind today’s way of speaking and writing (English perpetually changes); however, I’m slowly changing towards a more Intuitive Acquisition approach in order to help students breakdown the barriers that impede their ability to acquire knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.