scholarly journals The Effect of EFL Learners’ Critical Thinking on their Skill of Interpreting Information as Reflected in their Writing

sjesr ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-36
Author(s):  
Dr. Muhammad Din ◽  
Dr. Riaz Hussain ◽  
Sana Tahir
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Research Tools

A good thinker distinguishes his interpretations from evidence, considers alternative interpretations, and reconsiders them under following the changed conditions and new evidence. Critical thinking enables and helps students to evaluate, judge, and make choices regarding everyday information so that they may obtain, believe and use the information to take action accordingly. This quantitative study aims to know EFL learners’ attitude towards critical thinking skills of interpreting information and the effect of EFL learners’ critical thinking on their skill of interpreting information with specific reference to their critical writing. The present study also aims to explore how m and universities any universities foreign language learners reflect critical thinking ability in writing skills while interpreting information. The researcher has used three research tools to this end. These research tools include critical thinking inventory (CTI), Watson-Glazer’s (2002) critical thinking test for interpreting information (CTII), and critical writing test (CWT). The subjects of the present study are the B.Sc. (Bachelor Level) students from different colleges. The results of this study demonstrate that university students have a very positive attitude towards critical thinking skills interpreting information but their performance in reflecting critical thinking in the critical writing test does not match with the attitude towards critical thinking skills of interpreting information.  This study also makes some academic implications for the development of EFL learners’ critical thinking particularly in the context of Pakistan.

scholarly journals Critical Thinking and Argumentative Writing: Inspecting the Association among EFL Learners in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Zhengwei Pei ◽  
Chaoqun Zheng ◽  
Meng Zhang ◽  
Fangzhou Liu
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
English Majors ◽  
Efl Writing Instruction ◽  
Chinese Undergraduates

Nurturing critical thinking (CT) has been acknowledged as a core objective of tertiary education, and drawn attention from academia of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in China. The thrust of the present study was to determine the association between CT and EFL argumentative writing among Chinese undergraduates. To this end, 110 English majors across three grades at two universities were conveniently selected and given the critical thinking skills (CTS) test and EFL argumentative writing test. The results of this study indicated that undergraduate English majors in China did not possess strong CTS. Though their CTS was not found to be significantly correlated with EFL argumentative writing performance, textual analysis of typical essays showed that strong-CTS learners outperformed weak-CTS ones in relevance, clarity, logicality, profundity and flexibility of argumentative writing. The obtained results suggest a need to integrate CT into EFL writing instruction.

The Effect of Teaching Critical Thinking on Iranian EFL Learners' Essay Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Miri ◽  
Danial Babajani Azizi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Writing Instruction ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Experimental Group

The present study made an attempt to determine the effect of teaching critical thinking skills on Iranian EFL learners' essay writing ability. To do this, a sample of 60 EFL learners was selected based on their performance on Preliminary English Test (PET). The participants were randomly assigned to two equal groups of control and experimental. An essay-writing test functioning as pre-test was administered on both groups in order to ensure their homogeneity in terms of writing ability. The groups received 10 sessions of writing instruction; however, experimental group received additional instruction and practice regarding the techniques of critical thinking. Finally, both groups took an essay writing posttest in order to compare their writing achievements. Both pretest and posttest were scored by two raters using TOEFL rating scales. The results of paired and independent sample t-tests showed that critical thinking techniques significantly enhanced EFL learners writing ability.

Promoting students’ critical thinking through reading strategy instruction in a reading class

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
K.R. Vinitha Rani
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Strategy Instruction ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Reading Strategy ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Reading Strategy Instruction ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Bilingual School

This study examined the application of Reading Strategy Instruction (RSI) in a reading class to promote the critical thinking skills of the second language learners. It aims to find out (1) the critical thinking elements in the questions formulated by the participants before the application of RSI, and (2) the critical thinking elements found in the (a) three selected questions, (b) answers, and (c) reflections written by the participants after the application of RSI. This study included sixteen grade 11 participants of a bilingual school in Jakarta, aged between 16 to 18 years old. The participants underwent two stages (1) before the application of RSI, and (2) after the application of RSI. The RSI applied in this study was a modification of Rothstein & Santana’s (2014) “Question Formulation Technique” and Alder’s (2001) comprehension strategies in answering questions. The collected data were analysed by using the modified critical thinking indicators proposed by Mason (1991) and Henri (1992). The results of the study revealed that applying RSI in the reading class was beneficial in promoting the participants’ critical thinking skills. RSI helped the participants to (i) think differently, (ii) use prior background knowledge, (iii) question the facts given in the text, (iv) identify the issues given in the text, (v) give valid solutions to the problem, (vi) connect themselves with the text and the world, and (vii) justify their arguments using valid examples.

Fostering Critical Thinking Using Instructional Strategies in English Classes

2019 ◽  
pp. 299-316
Author(s):  
Şenol Orakcı ◽  
Mehmet Durnali ◽  
Osman Aktan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
English Classes

The aim of the chapter is to provide both theoretical and practical ideas about critical thinking development within English language teaching contexts. Encouraging language learners to be critical thinkers is important in teaching English as a foreign language. However, achieving the goal remains a challenge. Using various strategies together seem to be effective when properly implemented. Therefore this chapter outlines these strategies which include communicative language tasks, using authentic meaningful texts, using critical literacy, being aware of whole-brain learning, adopting a reflective teaching, enabling students to become autonomous, using explicit instruction, teacher questioning, using active and cooperative learning strategies, using literature in English classes, using creative drama, and adopting self-assessment. Teachers can enable learners to have critical thinking skills and more efficient English lessons by combining these strategies in a new way or by designing critical thinking activities in the classroom.

The Impact of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills on Reading Comprehension of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotfollah Karimi ◽  
Farshad Veisi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Reading ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

the purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of teaching critical thinking skills on reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. A sample of 50 students from Arshia Language Institute in Ilam, Iran participated in this study. They were both male and female students who were selected among 80 students based on their performances on PET. The participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. First, the two groups were exposed to the pre-test of reading comprehension in order to evaluate their knowledge on reading before the treatment. Based on scores obtained from the Pre-test, no significance differences were observed between two groups. After that the treatment was started and the experimental group was exposed to teaching critical thinking skills. Meanwhile, traditional methods of teaching reading comprehension were used for teaching reading comprehension to the control group. Finally, post-test of reading comprehension was delivered to both groups at the end of treatment to check possible differences.  To analyze the collected data, ANCOVA was run using SPSS Software Version 16. The results showed that teaching critical thinking skills positively affect reading comprehension of intermediate EFL learners, but the interaction of gender and teaching critical thinking was not significant.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Critical Thinking from the Philosophical, Reflective, Cognitive and Cultural Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Chunxia Lu ◽  
Rosukhon Swatevacharkul
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Chinese College Students ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Made In

In English as a foreign language context, to cultivate language learners’ critical thinking skills has become a part of the education goal. In China, great efforts have been made in order to increase Chinese college students’ critical thinking skills, but their critical thinking skills are not satisfying. As to the reasons, lack of sufficient and comprehensive understanding of critical thinking skills is supposed to be one of the reasons. Thus, this paper proposed to analyze critical thinking skills from the philosophical, reflective, cognitive, cultural perspectives hopefully to enhance understanding of critical thinking skills in Chinese EFL context.

Teaching and enhancement of critical thinking skills for undergraduate students in a computational fluid dynamics course

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao F Tian
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Online Test ◽  
Teaching Modules ◽  
Test Module

This paper reports the recent development and implementation of three teaching modules in order to teach and enhance the students’ critical thinking skills in a level IV undergraduate/postgraduate course ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Engineering Applications’. These teaching modules include a lecture module, an online test module and a CFD project module. The lecture module introduces the importance of critical thinking skills by an example case, critical thinking definition and processes, and the application of critical thinking skills in formulation of CFD problems. In the online test module, seven online tests have been developed to enhance the students’ understanding of the contents of lectures and practical sessions. Meanwhile, students apply their critical thinking skills to work out some of the tests. In the project module, a student-driven CFD project is designed to help students to apply CFD techniques and critical thinking skills in engineering problems. In the project, students choose their own project topic and problems. They use CFD skills learned in the course and critical thinking skills to critically analyse their problems, identify the important parameters and review results. They apply the critical writing skills to finalise a project report. To the best knowledge of the author, this systematical integration of teaching and enhancement of critical thinking skills in computational fluid dynamics course is innovative. Feedback from students is quite positive shown by an anonymous survey in 2014.

scholarly journals A Framework for Infusing Critical Thinking into Chinese College EFL Learners’ Argumentative Writing Process

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Chunxia Lu
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Writing Process ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Written Argumentation ◽  
Critical Thinking Instruction

Written argumentation, as a language skill and a cognitive skill as well, is not easy for EFL learners. In China, related studies found that college EFL learners are weak in written argumentation due to the deficiency of critical thinking. In order to enhance Chinese college EFL learners’ argumentative writing ability, this paper reviewed the nature of argumentative writing, the relationship between critical thinking and argumentative writing and previous studies on effects of critical thinking instruction into argumentative writing, and then pointed out that it is reasonable to infuse critical thinking into argumentative writing process in Chinese EFL context. With teachers’ feedback and students’ reflection as the pedagogical tool, the author synthesized an instruction framework for infusing critical thinking skills into Chinese EFL learners’ argumentative writing process hopefully to provide reference for further research and instruction.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document