Abstract
Critical thinking is
widely recognized as an essential component of academic English, yet it does
not receive the attention that it merits in English as a second
language education. This article will examine: why
critical thinking needs to be more emphasized in teaching English for academic
purposes;, the scope
of thinking strategies that it entails;,
and various ways in which it can be applied toin
Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESL or TESOL).
Introduction
In the 1980s, a critical thinking
boom took place in the , 1996);
this book, though quite advanced*** And how is this book being “quite
advanced” significant? Are other TESL-related books supposed to be less
advanced, less significant? ***, is a
good example of a text which focuses on systematic critical thinking skills
development*** How do we know this is a good example? ***.
Critical thinking ought to have a more central role in academic instruction
because this is what students need to
succeed in an academic environment *** You are beginning to
make a lot of unchecked assumptions; see
your italics ***. Toward
this end, it is necessary to provide explicit training in the specific critical
thinking skills which students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in.
What is Critical
Thinking?
There is no simple definition for critical thinking *** Yet, we expect our TESL students to master this ambiguity? ***because it consists of an array of skills and sub skills, some of which apply more than others to English language teaching. Here are some definitions to consider: *** So, do all the following quotes fall into your “apply more than others” category, or do some apply more than others? ***
○ "Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do." Ennis (1989, cited in Fisher)
○ "Critical thinking consists of an awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions, plus the ability and willingness to ask and answer them at appropriate times." Keeley and Browne (1994)
○ "Critical thinking is that mode of thinking¾about any subject, content or program¾in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them." Paul (2003)
○ "Critical thinking is skilled and active interpretation and evaluation of observations and communications, information and argumentation." Fisher (2001)
○ "Critical thinking is an investigation whose purpose is to explore a situation, phenomenon, question or problem to arrive at a hypothesis or conclusion about it that integrates all available information and can therefore be convincingly justified."
Kurfiss (1988, cited in
Though general, from these quotes some key concepts can be gleaned. Critical thinking is reflective; it consists of questions and a desire to answer them; it furthers the improvement of thought by applying intellectual standards*** Why do you keep using italics; if there is a reason for this, you must provide support / citations for it ***; and it is an investigation aimed at reaching a conclusion which can be supported with evidence. *** You should reference what you are saying here to the appropriate above quotations, to perhaps explore them in more detail ***
The main benefit of critical thinking is that it encourages
active learning by teaching students how
to think rather than what to
think. This is the antidote to
uncritical, unreflective, and apatheticuninquisitive
thinking and this is what is expected
of students in English-speaking academic settings *** Where is your proof
for this? ***. In order to meet these expectations, students need
to be trained in these skills to increase their chances of academic
success. It is incorrect to assume *** Yet
you are making “assumptions” in your next lines; see “logically follows” ***that
students will figure out how to do this on their own. Due to the fact that native speakers require
special instruction in critical thinking, it logically follows that non-native
speakers need it as well. In fact, their
need is even greater because critical thinking strategies in English are
possibly culturally alien to them. According to Atkinson (1997, 72),
"not only is critical thinking a culturally based concept, but many
cultures endorse modes of thought and education that almost diametrically
oppose it." For Atkinson, this is reason to be skeptical of the enterprise
of teaching critical thinking *** Is it? You quotation does not prove your
assumption. You dismiss Atkinson’s perspective too easily;
you should discuss this other side of the story as well ***.
However, Richard Day (2003) observes: "I have found students from The
bottom line is that Ccritical
thinking skills are required for students to succeed in academic English
settings, despite the caveat of Atkinson (1997) that it may be an
"exclusive" social practice which may not transfer into other subject
areas. The fact that critical thinking
skills may be unfamiliar, difficult and culturally challenging for students is
not a substantial reason to abstain from teaching them*** Yet, you don’t give
much attention, if any, to the “cultural” aspect of your argument, and those
difficulties, which is critical ***. On the contrary, that is precisely why they
require focused attention, and it is the teacher's responsibility to help
non-native speakers surmount this challenge. *** Up until this point,
the reader may not find much insight into the points you are
trying to make ***
Although critical thinking encompasses a broad range of skills and sub skills, for the purpose of English teaching, it can be framed in terms of the specific linguistic and cognitive skills¾thinking strategies¾that are used to accomplish a variety of academic tasks. The major skills include: information processing, inquiry, reasoning, creative thinking, and evaluation skills¾all of which are crucial for academic success *** You mention “academic success” too often without defining it ***. The following taxonomy, loosely adapted from the UK Department for Education and Skills (1999) *** The fact that you are using sources from other countries would make it necessary for you to be more specific about which TESL systems you are focusing on, as you start off talking about the American system, and then—after that—it becomes unclear ***, clarifies the above main skills and provides a detailed description of the sub skills which this author considers to be the most relevant to teaching English to non-native speakers.
1.
Information-Processing Skills *** Using lists are a good way to introduce ideas;
however, it is important to remember to refer back to them in some significant
way afterwards, or to provide relevant examples for each, or for some, and not
to leave them dangling ***
○ Gathering relevant information:
researching on the internet or, the library;,
by conducting a survey or any other means of finding information;,
assembling the data in a meaningful way and then determining how to apply it
for a given purpose.
○ Analyzing a text (text refers
to any form of language input, such as: a story, an article,
an audio or video clip, a statement, an advertisement) ***
Source your definition ***: text refers to any form of
language input. aAnalysis of a
text;,
what the students do with the input;,
consists of functions such as prioritizing, classifying, sequencing, comparing
and contrasting.
○ Interpreting a text: assigning
meaning to a text., such as: a story, an
article, an audio clip, a video clip, a statement, an advertisement.
○ Summarizing and paraphrasing: abstracting key points of a text and putting them into their own words. *** “putting them into their own words”: vague wording ***
2. Inquiry Skills
○ Asking relevant questions: asking questions which are purposeful and which generate thought *** Such as? ***.
○ Sustaining a dialogue: by asking
probing follow-up questions, students can urge each other to provide more
thought out answers. This discourse strategy may not be the norm in their
native language. Some examples of questions which could be used to sustain a
dialogue include:
¾ Why do you think that?
¾ Can you give me another reason?
¾ What
do you mean by that?
¾ How do you know that is true?
¾ Can you think of another example?
*** Several of the above questions can elicit Yes/No responses, which
are not thoughtful answers. Rephrase those questions ***
3. Reasoning Skills
○ Stating and logically supporting opinions: expressing an opinion and providing solid support to justify it and withstand scrutiny *** Such as? ***.
○ Drawing inferences: reading between the lines of a text by using individual facts *** “individual facts”: awkward wording ***to reach a conclusion.
○ Solving problems: making informed
decisions informed by reasons or evidence to
reach a solution for a problem. Students
need to reason logically to determine if their solution is a good one. *** “good”:
this is an empty descriptor; a word that doesn’t
really tell us anything. What is a “good” solution? It is important not to use
empty descriptors with TESL learners ***
○ Using clear and precise language:
striving *** How do you measure “striving”? ***for
clarity in an effort to explain their ideas in a simple and clear way. Precise language entails appropriate word
choice and structuring an argument with discourse markers for indicating
opinions, reasons, agreement, disagreement, elaboration, etc.
4. Creative Thinking Skills
○ Generating ideas: brainstorming for new ideas and improving the quality of their *** Whose? ***ideas.
○ Speculating: making intelligent guesses. Speculation can consist of making predictions, considering consequences of an action or policy, or examining an issue from different points of view. The question "what if" can serve as a stimulus for thinking hypothetically.
5. Evaluation
Skills
○ Evaluating peers and self: *** Remove the underline from underneath the colon ***judging the quality of a process or product according to specific criteria.
○ Distinguishing false from accurate images *** “images”: vague word ***: examining biases, prejudice and stereotypes in a text or introspectively.
Although there is nothing new about the above skills *** Then perhaps
it may be more advantageous to find some “new” skills to discuss? ***,
the emphasis in this methodology is to teach the above skills
explicitly***
Again, what is the purpose for the italics? *** by
making them tangible activity objectives. Having such objectives clarifies for
the teacher and students what they are doing, why, and if the objectives are
reached. It is because of the difficulty and possible unfamiliarity of many of
these skills that special attention is called for. For example, quite often students simply pick
the first ideas which come to mind if they are not instructed to brainstorm ***
Provide more detail for this example; provide more detailed examples, in
general ***. *** Being new paragraph ***Also, in
countries which use Confucian-based pedagogy *** Examples of countries
that use Confucianism? ***, students are not trained to express
opinions, inquire, and critically evaluate ideas because the focus is on rote
learning (Scollon, 1999). Nevertheless, though their former education
did not teach them how to think critically, these students can be trained
***
You must be careful to avoid using words that would make a reader think you are
comparing TESL learners to training animals ***to listen better,
write more clearly and read more carefully in order to determine for themselves
the worth of ideas which are presented to them and to avoid tempting habits of
stereotyping and prejudice to which uncritical thinking renders them vulnerable ***
Yet, there seems to be some “stereotyping” in these statements,
somehow dismissing Confucianism as arbitrary and insignificant ***.
For this reason, the above skills should be practiced on a regular basis in
class, the goal being to turn these thinking strategies into habits which will
help students throughout their academic career.
In a typical *** Define “typical” ***English-speaking
academic setting *** In all corners of the
world? ***, students are often required to present their ideas
through persuasive speaking/writing and by participating in discussions. It is in these areas that critical thinking
skills training ought to be focused because of the
fact that students are required to demonstrate this ability in themthese
modes. Persuasive speaking/writing entails constructing an
argument which listeners/readers bear the responsibility of evaluating, i.e.
the quality of reasoning. Persuasive speaking/writing is a relevant place to
practice argumentation discourse and serves to reinforce the standard academic
English convention of stating an opinion and supporting it logically. *** New
paragraph ***One activity that is exceptionally well-suited to
this is debate, in which all of the students get involved and
have the opportunity to practice a range of critical thinking skills as debaters and evaluators. In addition
to providing authentic listening, speaking and writing practice ***
Where is “writing” involved in the actual debating process? Perhaps it would be
good to detail these points a little ***, debate is an effective
activity for developing critical thinking skills because of its clear
objectives *** And these “clear” objectives are? ***which
incorporate all five main skill areas. The research and experience of Krieger
(2005), Davidson (1996), Day (2003) and Fukuda (2003) all bear out *** What
is “bear out”? Please watch the use of colloquial
slang which should not be used in an academic paper ***the claim
that these skills are learnable and that with practice students show progress
in their ability to perform functions such as: stating opinions, giving logical
support *** Giving logical support to what? ***,
recognizing the flaws in each other's arguments, generating ideas, sustaining a
dialogue, and analyzing a text.
Critical thinking activitiesexercises
enable students to delve into an issue
and to explore it rather than manipulate language for its own sake and
unreflectively *** Better word please ***speak and
write. Due to the difficulty of this*** The
writer has swayed somewhat from the abstract which indicated critical thinking
should be given more “merit”—yet, the writer constantly uses terms like “Due to
the difficulty of this,” “There is no simple definition,” “Although there is
nothing new about the above skills,” and “Though general.” The
reader, therefore, is not provided with any real insight into this topic, does
not see this “merit” that is mentioned. , it is the responsibility
of the teacher to oversee the process by providing structured practice. The following are some examples:principles
are useful for facilitating critical thinking objectives in the classroom.
1. Use activities that have various answers or solutions
This gives students more options in the ways that they can go
about solving a problem.
Moreover, the fact that students may generatecome up
with different answers and solutions provides an additional
opportunity for them to explain their process of reasoning. This make students
more aware of the gray of issues *** What are these “gray issues”? ***.
2. Give students ample time for challenging
tasks
Students may need more time to accomplish some
tasks because of the difficulty level, which may entail some thinking timeBecause
of the difficulty of some critical thinking tasks, students may need a lot of
time to accomplish them. That may entail
preparation time before the task for them to gather their thoughts. Respecting thisthe
students’ need for time helps facilitate the training of the
skills.
3. Model clearly what students are to do
A model involves demonstrating how the teacher would
approach an activity. This will eliminatehead off
possibleinevitable
uncertainties forthat the
students have as they beginare
going into an activity which may appear to be daunting
to
them at first.
4. Outline the steps that students are to follow
by breaking them down into bite-sized chunks
This makes it easier for students to understand the activity, helping them to organize what they are doing and enabling the teacher to follow along, making sure that they are on track. *** Explain what “chunking” is ***
5. Promote interaction among the students and
mix up
groups often
As a facilitator, it is the teacher's job to get students
going *** “Get students going”—this language is too
colloquial ***and give them a jumpstart if they need it. *** You
mention it’s “the teacher’s job” a few times; and as
such, you take away from the student’s job, which is to find responsibility in
his/her learning *** Quite often students gravitate toward their
friends and feel comfortable this way in every
class. Yet students will benefit from talking to students who they would not
otherwise associate with in order to becomeget
exposed to different points of view. *** Examples for this
point? ***
6. Encourage students to have a
sense of curiosity and a community of inquiry
A good way to inspire curiosity is by modeling it *** How do you “model” curiosity? ***and encouraging students to maintain a questioning attitude in a respectful manner *** Define respectful; give examples ***.
7. Challenge students to explain and justify
their views clearly
It is worthwhile to urge students to provide support for
their views, judgments and decisions.
Sometimes it is necessary to ask a student, can you say it in another
way? *** This question would simply provide a Yes/No
answer *** to elicit a clearer answer. Challenging students allowsgets
them to evaluate their own ideas. This can also be accomplisheddone
by encouraging students to sustain their dialogues by probing each other with
follow-up questions in discussions.
Although students may spontaneously engage in critical
thinking, due to the discipline ***
Spontaneous discipline is an oxymoron ***that it requires in a
language classroom and the fact that it may be culturally foreign to them *** How
do you spontaneously engage in something that’s foreign to you? ,
it is necessary for teachers to structure activities within a methodology based
on critical thinking skills development. This is essential for foreign students
who aim to study at an English-speaking university or high school because they
are expected to adopt the academic practices of English and are assessed
accordingly. Furthermore, a critical thinking
approach to English education facilitates language learning because such thinking strategies deepen the learning
experience, making the language more meaningful for the students¾a
vehicle through which they can gradually discover themselves in the process *** I
do not see this “discovery” in any part of your paper ***. This
leading out of the self through thinking is how the function of education can
more fully be achieved, according to the origin of the word educate: to lead out *** Where is your source
for this definition? ***.
*** I find the argument in
your conclusion hard to concur with; you have not amply supplied or highlighted
the areas in which there is a deficit in critical thinking—you
only really provide one side of the story, and you do not engage in
much of the “merit” that red-carpets your abstract. You haven’t really
discussed much that isn’t already
being discussed ***
Atkinson, D. 1997. A critical
approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL TABQuarterly.
31(1):
71-94.
Brown, H. D. 2004. Some practical thoughts about student-sensitive critical TABpedagogy. The Language Teacher. 28 (7): 23-27.
Davidson, B. 1995. Critical
thinking education faces the challenge of
Day, R. 2003. Teaching critical thinking and discussion. The Language Teacher TABOnline. 27 (7).
DfEE 1999. The National
Curriculum. www.nc.uk.net
Fisher, A. 2001. Critical thinking: an introduction.
Fukuda, S. 2003.
Attitudes toward argumentation in college EFL classes in
Gardner, P. S. 1996. New directions: an integrated approach to reading, writing, and TABcritical thinking.
Keeley, S. M. & Browne, M. N. 1994. Asking the right questions: a guide to critical TABthinking. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Krieger, D. 2005. Teaching Debate to ESL Students: A Six-Class Unit . The Internet TABTESL Journal. XI (2).
Paul, R. & Elder, L. 2003. The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and TABtools. The Foundation for Critical Thinking.
Scollon, Suzanne. 1999. Confucian
and Socratic discourse in the tertiary classroom, TABIn
Eli Hinkel (Ed.) Culture in second language teaching
and learning.
The
author introduces many
models for critical thinking with are not always cited.
A –1
B – 3 (2
with revision)
C – 3 (1
with revision)
D – 4 (2
with revision)
E – 2 (1
with revision)
F – 3 (1
with revision)
G – 3 (2
with revision)
H – 3 (1
with revision)
Reviewer: LIA