David: You are listening to Dialogically Minded. Dialogical Discourse for Second Language Learners. In this program we explore the language used for public, civil, and academic discussion for the purpose of achieving various communication goals. Good morning Jennie.
Jennie: Hello David. Good to see you today.
David: And as always, it’s good to see you too. So we should first say hello to our listeners and thank you, listeners, for finding our podcast and this first episode on dialogical discourse.
Jennie: A lot of listeners may wonder what we mean by dialogic.
David: Well, dialogic is in many ways a $50.00 word for a $5.00 idea. We communicate dialogically when we discuss issues with other persons to reach a better understanding of an issue.
Jennie: Maybe one way to explain this is to explain what dialogic discourse is not. We are not communicating dialogically when we talk about what a nice sunny day it is or how disappointed we are that our football team lost an important game against its rival.
David: So what is the relationship between dialogic discourse and critical thinking? First a lot of people may have the idea that critical thinking is something that we do on our own. Maybe they imagine Sherlock Holmes puffing quietly on his pipe and solving mysteries from his chair. Nothing could be further from the truth, though, and the greatest authorities on critical thinking have tried to clear up this misunderstanding. To put it as simply as I can, critical thinking involves issues, decisions, disagreements and negotiation for reaching better informed and shared understanding between people with different opinions, perspectives and worldviews. Critical thinking is absolutely a social activity. Now, you could say that there are two sides to critical thinking: critical thinking skills and critical dispositions.
[2:25]
Jennie: Critical dispositions deal with a person’s readiness or willingness to think about the world critically rather than simply accepting information about the world as is, the way it is reported and interpreted to them. It means thinking for oneself. It also means really wanting to find out what is true, even if it means admitting that you have been wrong. When you are having a disagreement with another person, are you only trying to win the argument, or are you more interested in reaching a better understanding and higher level of awareness about important issues?
David: Skilled communication that expresses these dispositions is an important part of critical thinking. This kind of communication is often referred to as dialogic. And communication between two or more people is called discourse and orderly and thoughtful discussion of ideas and issues is called dialogic discourse. Dialogic discourse does not include people having shouting matches and not listening to each other’s statements. It means forming your own statements and questions carefully in order to communicate your ideas clearly; and it also means carefully considering what other people say.
Jennie: It also means speaking a common language that is spoken in public, civil, professional and academic situations. This common language, which we are calling dialogic discourse is used to express the following dispositions:
the willingness to form clear expressions of your main idea or questions; to look for reasons; to be well-informed; to use credible sources rather than just quoting anyone as long as they support your idea; and citing your sources. That means being able to tell exactly where you got your information. It means considering the total situation; and being aware of your own bias and your own self-centered reasoning. It means sticking to the main point, and keeping the original or basic problem or question in mind.
[4:18]
David: It means seeking out alternative solutions or answers other than the one you already have in mind; being open-minded, considering other people’s or other culture’s perspectives; being willing to reason from premises that you disagree with to explore alternative conclusions; and waiting to make judgements and decisions until you are sure you have enough information.
Jennie: It means that when you feel you have enough information, you do not hesitate to take a position on issues. But it also means being willing to change your position if new information becomes available.
It means being as precise as you possibly can be; and that when an issue is complex, you do your best to manage the parts of the whole.
And lastly, it means maintaining sensitivity to the feelings of others; taking into consideration how knowledgeable and how sophisticated you expect other people may be.
David: It’s a lot to keep in mind and we list it here only as something we can refer back to later. It’s not something that you have to memorize. Of course, most of you listening to this are English language learners and are listening to our program to become better English speakers. So you may be asking, What do these dispositions have to do with language learning? Well, in order to think critically, yes, we need to be able to express our ideas clearly– but we must also demonstrate to the people we are speaking with that we our giving the appropriate consideration to social conventions, by using language that is common to the expression of various critical dispositions. It’s especially important in professional life because people who cannot express the willingness to engage in dialogic discourse are usually considered to have bad manners, poor education and backward upbringing.
[6:54]
We have categorized these phrases by their communicative function. In the next 12 or so weeks we’ll be covering the following categories of dialogic discourse:
expressing Opinions and Agreeing and Disagreeing
experessing Levels of Conviction
Creating Focus
Interruptions and Interjections
Resuming a Topic
Changing the Subject
Clarifying and Confirming Comprehension
Accusations and Defenses
Comparison and Contrast
Inclusion and Exclusion
Examples, Illustrations and Analogies
Suggestions
Pointing out Commonly Held False Beliefs
and
Rules and Exceptions to the Rule
Jennie: All these words and phrases in each of these categories will help you to express yourself and to understand what other people are trying to communicate. Many of the words and phrases will already be familiar to you. We’ll just be looking more closely at the way that language is used in simple, everyday conversations. And have a lot of fun doing it.
David: Absolutely, so we’ll get started with that in our next episode.
Jennie: So prepare to think critically.
David: And speak dialogically.