Although Pierce's article, "Online Strategies for Teaching ThinkIng" is about using the Internet, I have often engaged my, EFL, students in "dialogical" thinking through discussing cultural values & beliefs when learning about controversial issues (in America). Pierce defines dialectal thinking as a way to generate interest in a reading. The fore mentioned unit I cover covers issues that carry a lot of emotion with them, especially samesex marriage and abortion. I wasn't surprised at the shock of Asian, or Saudi Arabian students, but what did surprise me was the most liberal Russian student's complete and utter intolerance of same sex marriage, yet my quiet Saudi student was completely fine with the idea. Other Asian & South American students could not comprehend a woman having the right to choose whether or not she would keep her baby in North America. I am happy to say my students listen to one another and at the end of the discussion not only did their vocabulary increase, but tolerance for others did as well.
I am aware that my students are more apt to listen because they are still trying to comprehend words they don't know in context and I firmly believe by not being completely fluent helps students keep their emotions in check.
Another advantage of emotional discussions in my class was their learning an idiom in context, Let's just agree to disagree
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