What is Fallacies

Critical thinking skills, while vital for today's young people, are challenging to teach, particularly in a second-language medium class, and micro-lessons may improve students' comprehension and skills development. The impact of micro-lessons on student assessment performance in a second-language medium class was given an empirical test. University students (n = 33; 41) in an English-medium class in Japan were given a parallel set of lessons on logical fallacies during two classes. Traditional lecture methods were used to teach one half of the fallacies in the lessons while students were given video micro-lessons to study the other half, along with in-class instructor support and feedback. Students' ability to identify these common fallacy types was tested using pre- and post-tests in both classes. Test results indicate that both instructional methods proved effective, although student feedback showed a preference for an approach that incorporates lectures as well as micro-lessons.