Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

[Glenski]

[surrealia]

A couple of well-written articles on critical thinking in ELT:


Teaching Critical Thinking and Discussion

Critical thinking in the language classroom

[Glenski]

From that first reference.
Let's look at this view of critical thinking as cultural, and therefore difficult for ESL/EFL students to grasp. I interpret them this way: Teaching critical thinking is a type of Western imperialism; it is an attempt to force an individualistic, often adversarial type of thinking onto students whose cultures often view the world rather differently. For example, Asian learners may be viewed as members of cultures that are group-oriented and non-adversarial, often seeking harmony rather than conflict. Thus, not only would it be an attempt to impose a Western orientation toward thinking and behaving on Asian learners, but it would be difficult, if not impossible, given their cultural ways of thinking and dealing with the world.

I disagree with this interpretation. In my work at the University of Hawaii, I have found students from Taiwan, China, Korea, and Japan receptive to instruction in critical thinking. Not only are they receptive, they have no difficulty in engaging in the process.

As a rebuttal, however, it might be observed that I work in an ESL situation, and Asian students who go to the United States might be more open to learning a Western view of thinking and behaving. In an EFL situation, it cannot be assumed that critical thinking will be approached the same way.

I would agree with this. Even in the article it had a Japanese study, but with only 70 students, and the questionnaire given to them had only 9 questions, mostly related to writing. I think that the definition of critical thinking really needs to be laid out, or we're going to have a heckuva thread here!

The second link is written for spoken discussions, but I see it easily flowing into the written realm, and it is short but quite clearly written. Good points there.

Whether one has enough time to incorporate the teaching of critical thinking into a speaking course is a valid concern.