Prevalence of Tertiary Level Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Speaking (original) (raw)
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Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in Higher Education: Some Reflections
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Critical thinking skills are seen as a required quality that students should acquire in order to excel on their education journey. Critical thinking skills enable students to critically analyze materials and improve their analytical, argumentative and communication skills. Using critical thinking skills students are able to evaluate different arguments and based on that knowledge resolve different conflicts and come up with solutions to problems they experience in their lives. The main aim of this paper is to analyze some conceptions of critical thinking skills, to investigate the importance of critical thinking skills for students, and to examine the need for teaching strategies to develop students’ critical thinking. If we are to revive critical thinking in our education system, especially in English language teaching, then we must give opportunity to train, learn, adapt, and of course teach how to evaluate such assessment. This sums up the purpose of this paper, which beside disc...
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Previous studies shows that several learning strategies have been used to promote critical thinking skills for students at the university level, the most frequently used is presentation. The students in the third semester of the English department in IAIN Pekalongan have distinctive responses regarding their critical thinking skills in their presentation. This study aimed to explain students’ perception, plan and implementation in their use of critical thinking skills in their presentation. This study was qualitative case study. The data gathered by classroom observation, questionnaires, and interviews. The findings showed (1) The students positively perceived their use of critical thinking skills in their presentation, they believed that critical thinking skills help them to enable their presentation, English skills, and performance (2) the students plan their critical thinking skills by preparing the schema, skills, and practicing (3) the implementation of critical thinking skills...
Efl Students' Critical Thinking in Speaking Activities
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This research aimed to investigate how EFL students apply critical thinking in speaking activities and to explore the levels of critical thinking achieved by EFL students in speaking activities at e-COLINK Pontianak. The population of this research was the EFL students of advanced level 3 at e-COLINK Pontianak with a total of eight students. The samples of this research were selected using total sampling technique. The researcher applied the type of descriptive research with a qualitative approach. The techniques of data collection used in this research were observation and direct communication. For collecting the data, the researcher used the instruments such as field notes and interview. To analyze the data, the researcher used descriptive qualitative analysis, which was based on the theory from Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen, Walker (2014). As the results, the researcher revealed that the EFL students applied critical thinking in speaking activities based on the indicators of critical thi...
Critical Thinking and Speaking Proficiency: A Mixed-method Study
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2014
The present study was intended to investigate the impact of teaching critical thinking skills on the speaking proficiency of Iranian EFL learners in Tehran, how this impact is explained and the participants' attitudes towards explicit critical-thinking content. To achieve this goal, two groups of female Iranian intermediate EFL learners were compared on their speaking performance, with one group having been trained in critical thinking explicitly and the other as the control group. Both groups were tested prior to and after the training of the experimental group was performed. A mixed-method approach was employed in the analysis of the data. In the quantitative analysis, a quasi-experimental method was adopted to investigate the impact of teaching critical thinking skills on the speaking proficiency of the experimental group in comparison with the control group. The results indicated that teaching critical thinking explicitly has a significantly positive impact on the speaking proficiency of female Iranian adult intermediate EFL learners. Through the qualitative approach, the participants' attitudes towards their training in critical thinking were studied during in-depth interviews. The results are described in detail. Accordingly, explicit instruction of critical thinking in the English class can make a deeper impression of the language taught.
In recent years, English language teaching and research in the Sultanate of Oman has witnessed a significant increase in the emphasis upon critical thinking skills development alongside language proficiency. Fostering a perspective of commitment to teaching critical thinking skills in line with the English language courses, this paper reports on a study conducted at the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University. In particular, it explores English language teachers' conceptual definitions of critical thinking, their beliefs about the significance of critical thinking for language teaching and connections between critical thinking and language teaching methods. The results of the study's survey, supported by concrete examples from the classroom, suggest that the ultimate majority of those teachers (96%) recognise the central role played by critical thinking in effective language pedagogy. The results also indicate teachers' preference for aligning their teaching methods with the functional-communicative approach, related to Ennis' (2011) critical thinking categories. They also suggest a predisposition for employing practical aspects of critical thinking teaching methodologies in the English language classroom to more holistically prepare students for further academic studies and their future careers in the workplace.
A Study On The Effects Of Critical Thinking On The Development Of Speaking Ability
International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2024
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of critical thinking skills on speaking ability among students of non-English major. The study was conducted at Dai Nam University with 74 students from three disciplines; linguistics, healthcare and technology. The research design were survey and experimental. The findings reveal that the levels of critical thinking skills vary across disciplines. Linguistics students hold the least (M=1.87). This indicates that the students were categorized as a "Basic Critical Thinker." The Healthcare students ranked the top (M=3.07). A ranking within this range (M= 3.00 to 3.99) places the individuals in the "Proficient Critical Thinker". Technology students were categorized as "Emerging Critical Thinker" (M=2.10). The aspects of Clarity of Communication and Problem Solving Skills contributed mostly to the development of speaking ability B = 0.79, t(69) = 3.51, p < .001 and B = 0.57, t(69) = 2.23, p = .005 respectively. The critical training course proved beneficial for students in terms of enhancing speaking ability; mean of post-test was significantly higher than mean of pre-test M= 6.28 and M=5.03 respectively.
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS FOR LANGUAGE STUDENTS
Recent developments in language teaching increasingly puts a stronger importance on critical thinking skills. While studies in this area have begun to emerge, it is believed that a probe into the learners' mind when they process information can contribute significantly to the effort of identifying how exactly our learners think. This study was conducted partly to seek the answers to the issue. A brief training on critical thinking and critical attitude was given to a group of language learners who were studying Business Correspondence. Questionnaires were then used to capture traces of their thinking as they were preparing to accomplish a learning task and while they were listening to their classmates' presentation of ideas. The data show the change of their thinking process. After the training there is a tendency from the students to ask more critical questions with slightly higher frequencies. It is concluded then that the brief training has prompted their awareness of critical thinking.
New Zealand studies in applied linguistics, 2015
Interest in the complex and contested topic of critical thinking does not seem to diminish. Higher Education Research & Development recently devoted an entire issue to different facets of the topic. Earlier articles in the journal have engaged in debates on whether critical thinking is a general skill or a subject-specific one (Moore, 2004; Davis, 2006). As an academic skills and language advisor, I teach critical thinking in its various avatars: critical analysis, evaluation, reflective thinking and problem solving, both in generic academic skills workshops, as well as within specific subjects. Therefore, I have followed with interest the growing body of publications on the topic, especially the debate on the generalist versus specificist perspectives on critical thinking. This book, which presents a discussion on the topic, has been a very welcome addition to the body of work on critical thinking as it further enriches discussion on a vital and often challenging pedagogic task. Moore's book makes a solid contribution to the field. It gets many things right. It provides a comprehensive literature review and employs a research design that can be replicated in other disciplines. It is also written in a very accessible style. However, the final conclusion, that critical thinking can be taught only within the context of a specific discipline, is not totally convincing. The book sets out to answer three interrelated questions by uncovering what critical thinking means to individual academics in different disciplines within the Faculty of Arts in an Australian university. On the basis of the responses, Moore seeks to unravel the extent of disciplinary variations with regard to critical thinking. The responses form the basis for an answer to the final question related to the implications for teaching. A broad trans-disciplinary approach to critical thinking is adopted. The teaching of tertiary literacy, cultural studies, English for academic purposes, teaching of English to speakers of other languages, academic literacies, critical pedagogy, literary theory and the history of western education are some of the areas studiously explored. The literature review elegantly synthesises the rich field of critical thinking. The definitional slipperiness of the term and the generalist-specificist debate on critical thinking is carefully documented. Phenomenography forms the overarching framework for the study, and textography, a method initially used by Swales and modestly described as, 'something more than a disembodied textual or discoursal analysis, but something less than a full ethnographic account' (as cited in Moore, 2011, p. 59) is appropriate for the project, as it makes possible a systematic empirical study of an area that is generally under-researched. Seventeen academics from the Faculty of Arts from different disciplines were interviewed and documents related to their specific subjects were examined. These included references to types of thinking and the expectations with regard to it in the subject outline, the assessment tasks, the rubrics of essay questions and any stimulus that
2019
In the international integration and globalization context and the strong influences of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), critical thinking (CT) is becoming a more and more important skill that students need to be trained. To undergraduate students, critical thinking is not only a key study skill to meet the targets of the university curriculum but also the individuals' ability to think independently and make appropriate decisions in real-life situations. Consequently, preparing students to utilize the widest range of academic language skills through analysis, synthesis, and problem-solving facilitates them to the highest levels of academic achievement and the future continuous professional development. This article analyses the crucial roles of critical thinking skills in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and developing practical professionals for English pedagogical major students. For practical purposes, examples of activities and steps of implementation are given to enhance critical thinking skills for students at HCM City University of Education, Vietnam.