A lot of what I write about involves logical fallacies, biases or heuristics. This is a guide with more detail about each one and how they relate to language and language teaching. I’ll expand on it as and when…
1. Argument from popularity (Argumentum ad populum)
4. Argument from authority
Famous TEFLer ‘so and so said this is good so I’d better do it. Regardless of who said it you should always ask “is it true” and “how do they know?” more info here.
5. Ad Hominem (to the man)
The best known example of this is the emperor’s new clothes story. In basic terms it means, everyone knows something is nonsense, but thinks everyone else believes in it. This leads to a majority accepting something none of them believe in for fear of speaking out of turn.
10. The courtier’s reply
An informal fallacy created by Pz Myers in which the criticism is dismissed on the grounds that the critic doesn’t fully understand the subject and thus can’t criticise it. This may sound like a valid criticism (and could be) but is not valid in instances where the validity of the subject cannot be established. Thus learning more about it will make no difference. For instance:
A: NLP is total pseudoscience.
B: Well, you’re not a master practitioner so how could you possibly make that claim?
Learning more about NLP would in this case not change the fact that NLP is pseudoscience. In short, you don’t need a fashion degree to know the king is naked.
11. Motte and Bailey
Deceptively using a stronger position to defend a weaker one. The (Motte) is an uncontroversial and easy to defend position and the bailey is a more controversial one. For example:
Motte: Everyone learns in a different way
Bailey: We each have unique learning styles which should be catered to.
Motte: everything is political
Bailey: therefore all education is political and we are all indoctrinating students unless we adopt a critical approach.
12. The Nirvana fallacy
Post here
13. The curse of knowledge
Simply put, teachers often forget how little their students know. Once we know something it becomes more difficult to imagine not understanding it. Anyone who has played the game ‘Codenames‘ will understand this bias.
14. Social Desirability Bias
The fact that people will lie, even on anonymous surveys, if the answers are more socially acceptable. Voter turnout is a good example where the number of people who say they will vote always exceeds the number who do. In ELT SDB might be seen in research which says teachers would read more research if they had the time, or it was available to them when actually they perhaps have no interest in reading research.
