Critical Thinking & ELT
Reading
Xu, J. (2011). The Application of Critical Thinking in Teaching English Reading. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(2), 136–141.
Examining different critical thinking definitions, one thing is agreed upon by most researchers: that is critical thinking includes not only critical thinking skills (containing both a process of thinking and thinking ability), involving analysis, interpretation, inference, explanation, evaluation and self-regulation but also critical thinking dispositions including clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, fairness. So a new way to teach English reading focusing on developing students’ critical thinking should be proposed. Students should be trained to be critical readers who can “question, organize, interpret, synthesize, and digest what they read”. |
SpeakingScott, S. (2008). Perceptions of students’ learning critical thinking through debate in a technology classroom: a case study. The Journal of Teachnology Studies, 34(1). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JOTS/v34/v34n1/scott.html
Critical thinking is often a desired competency for graduates of a technology program. Organizational members have uttered concern about students’ inability to think critically. Although traditional pedagogical techniques, such as lectures and examinations, center on knowledge acquisition, debates in the technology classroom can effectively facilitate critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to gather via questionnaires the perceptions of technology students on the debate process used in the classroom to increase critical thinking. Overall, the students believed that the debate process was a useful learning activity. The results of the questionnaire revealed that students believed that the debates helped them understand the topic better, learn new knowledge, and gain an understanding of the debate process. In addition, students thought that the debates increased their critical thinking skills. Yang, Y.-T., & Gamble, J. (2013). Effective and practical critical thinking-enhanced EFL instruction. ELT Journal, 67(4), 398–412. With globalization and the spread of English, EFL instruction is ever more important. In addition to a new language, learners are also exposed to different cultures and ways of thinking. Thus, EFL classrooms provide ideal contexts for exploring important critical thinking (CT) skills. Based on a literature review, theory-based learning activities were designed for targeting language learning, CT development, and academic achievement. An experimental design was used with participants from two freshman EFL classes. While Experimental group learners engaged in CT-enhanced activities such as debates and peer critiques, Control group learners engaged in non-CT-enhanced EFL activities such as group presentations and process writing, effective but without an emphasis on CT. Experimental group learners demonstrated a significant improvement in English proficiency in comparison to the Control group. Furthermore, superior CT and academic achievement were observed for the Experimental group in a content-based exam. Implications for designing CT-enhanced EFL activities that boost English proficiency and CT are discussed. |
TestingFahim, M., Bagherkazemi, M., & Alemi, M. (2010). The Relationship between Test Takers‟ Critical Thinking Ability and their Performance on the Reading Section of TOEFL. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(6), 830–837.
The vitality of the ability to think critically is now widely recognized among educators and assessors. Critical thinking is defined as the ability to discipline thinking through efficient information processing (Paul, 1990; cited in Longman, Atkinson & Breeden, 1997). This study aimed at uncovering the extent to which the reading section of a ubiquitous standardized test of English language proficiency, namely TOEFL, engages the critical thinking ability of test takers. To this end, 83 advanced EFL learners completed the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (1980), and the results were correlated with their scores on the reading section of Paper-Based TOEFL (PBT). The findings indicated a statistically significant advantage for those with greater critical thinking skills. Implications relate to the need to incorporate critical reading strategy training in PBT reading preparatory courses and other EFL reading programs. This way, the quality of Measurement-driven Reading Instruction and other EFL reading courses can be improved with a broader goal in mind, that of enhancing critical thinking among learners. Moreover, some of the objections lodged against the idea of teaching to the test, as the prevailing practice today, would be, to some extent, met. |
GrammarAl-Issa, A. (2014). Constructing Grammar Instruction in the Omani ELT System: A Critical
Literacy Perspective. The Qualitative Report, 19(52), 1–26. Debate in the literature has been ongoing about whether to teach English language grammar explicitly, implicitly or integrate both approaches to achieve optimal learning. This research paper, hence, discusses this issue from an ideological perspective with a particular reference to the Omani English language teaching (ELT) education system. The paper triangulates data from various semi-structured interviews made with different agents involved in the Omani ELT education system, the pertinent literature, The Philosophy and Guidelines for the Omani English Language School Curriculum, which I will herewith refer to as the National English Language Policy/Plan (NELP), other policy texts and the English language national syllabus – Our World Through English (OWTE) Teacher’s Guide. The critical discussion revealed various contesting ideologies about teaching grammar in the Omani ELT system and the crucial role of teachers in the effective policy implementation or otherwise. |
Teacher
Nguyen, T. (2016). Critical thinking in a Vietnamese tertiary English as a foreign language context : current practices and prospects. University of Technology Sydney.
This thesis explores critical thinking practices in the relatively under-researched context of Vietnamese tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. Drawing on Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy and Barnett’s (1997) domains of criticality, critical thinking is defined in this study as the capacity for students to use their cognition to understand, interpret and critique received knowledge, to question their own understanding and assumption(s), and then to take action in their own life-worlds and beyond. This qualitative study with a case study design contributes to the contested evidence of critical thinking practices in an Asian EFL context. Data were collected from two field trips involving 20 observations of two class types: 14 (more elementary) skills-based and six (relatively advanced) content-based classes. Observations were complemented by semi-structured interviews with eight teachers and 22 students and document analysis. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. Findings revealed that the participants equated critical thinking with expressing personal opinions, and with a right/wrong dichotomy. They subjected others’ opinions rather than their own to criticism. The study found that critical thinking was differentially integrated in the teaching of the skills-based and content-based classes, and that the students’ engagement with critical thinking differed between whole-class learning and group discussions, and according to their ability to relate to given texts. Critical thinking practice in the context was shaped by the attitudes and understandings of the teachers and students themselves, examination regimes, national cultural norms (e.g. face-saving, respect for teachers), and what might be deemed universal human classroom behaviours (e.g. authority, peer pressure). The findings imply that critical thinking can be implemented in this Asian EFL context provided certain conditions are met, such as sufficient scaffolding, appropriate task difficulty level, relevant material choice, and suitable classroom arrangement. It is also inferred from the study that the content-based classes, aiming to provide a socio-cultural understanding of English-speaking countries are more conducive to developing critical thinking than the skills-based classes, which aim to develop students’ language skills. The application of a combination of Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy and Barnett’s (1997) domains of criticality opens up a new way of understanding critical thinking practices in a specific context. The study recommends consistent support for critical thinking at national and institutional levels through curriculum design, the examination and assessment systems, and at the classroom level, through pre-service and in-service teacher training, as well as incremental incorporation of critical thinking from the onset of EFL courses. Ketabi, S., Zabihi, R., & Ghadiri, M. (2013). Critical thinking across the ELT curriculum: A mixed methods approach to analyzing L2 teachers’ attitudes towards critical thinking instruction. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 2(3). The underlying assumption of recent ideas of applied ELT, life syllabus and educational language teaching is that ELT professionals should center their attention on the enhancement of learners’ life skills, say, critical thinking prior to language-related skills. Despite the high premium placed on enhancing the critical thinking abilities in educational policies, and granted that English language classes have unique potentials for promoting learners’ life skills such as critical thinking, it seems that ELT teachers are lacking in a true understanding of what critical thinking really means and whether or not it should be incorporated into the ELT curriculum. In the present study, EFL teachers in Iran were surveyed and interviewed regarding such a necessity. The first phase involved the collection of quantitative data via the administration of a short scale comprising Likert-style questions to Iranian EFL teachers (N = 106). Analysis of the questionnaire results revealed that EFL teachers tended to express strong support for the incorporation of critical thinking into the ELT curriculum. Follow-up face-to-face interviews were carried out with a subsample (N = 5) selected from Phase 1 participants. The interview |