Giving Arguments, Justifications, And Explanations: An Analysis On Giving Reasons From A Child Discourse Perspective

This paper aims to characterize the activity of arguing, justifying, and explaining made by children through the analysis of natural interactions during play and role play in kindergarten. The methodology used was as follows: Firstly, a literature review of previous studies on the three speech acts in the areas of psycology and education was done. Secondly, theoretical approaches on giving reasons speech acts were analyzed together with contributions from contemporary argumentation theory, philosophy of action, and discourse analysis. The results show that research studies do not always determine the distinction between the three terms under study (explanation, justification, and argumentation). Likewise, theoretical contributions suggest that a wider discourse context is essential for understanding and characterizing the type of giving reasons activity. Finally, analysis of authentic interactions helps to determine which cognitive conflict may be involved in the giving reasons speech act used by the speaker.