Teaching rhetoric to high school students through a comparison and contrast speech
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2663-0303.2024.1.03Keywords:
teaching rhetoric, rhetorical skills, a compare-contrast speech, 11th-grade secondary school students, profession-oriented schoolAbstract
Background. This paper focuses on the teaching of rhetoric to high school students in the Ukrainian classroom. It specifically addresses the development of rhetorical skills in 11th-grade students through compare-contrast speeches, an area that has not been extensively covered in Ukrainian language pedagogy. The authors advocate the incorporation of rhetorical education into the high school curriculum in Ukraine, as the current social and professional environment in the country demands that graduates should be proficient in communication, debate, persuasion, and information filtering to succeed in their future careers.
The objective of this paper is to explore the development of rhetorical skills in 11th-grade students in a profession-oriented school through compare-contrast speeches in a Ukrainian classroom. Additionally, it aims to create and validate a series of exercises and tasks to enhance the effectiveness of developing these skills.
Methodology. The study was conducted as a natural experiment involving 22 students from a professionally oriented high school in Ukraine. Author 2 served as an internship teacher and validated a series of exercises aimed at improving students' oral communication skills, critical thinking, and the use of comparecontrast rhetorical strategies.
Results and discussion. The authors used different types of rhetorical exercises (preparatory, training, creative, and evaluative-analytical) to develop a tailored set of exercises for instructing compare-contrast speeches. Following the implementation of these exercises during a teaching internship, the researchers observed notable enhancements in students' rhetorical skills. The percentage of students showing high and adequate levels of rhetorical competence increased, while the proportion at the average level decreased. However, the data obtained reveal an uneven impact of the instruction on different aspects of communicative competence. Students' language and textual skills were more affected as opposed to their rhetorical skills. The overall conclusion from the research is that only targeted and systematic instruction can lead to significant improvement in rhetorical skills. Despite being proficient in language and communication, most students found mastering rhetorical techniques difficult, as it requires higher-order thinking skills and creativity.
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