critical thinking skills and meaning in english language teaching

The Realization of Critical Thinking Skills and Meaning in EFL Teaching and Learning

by Harits Masduqi

Universitas Negeri Malang

Try to draw connections between the pictures on the following slide.

INTRODUCTION

CRITICAL THINKING:

has been a well-established subject and a debatable research field.

can be traced from the teaching practice and vision of Socrates 2,500 years ago.

supported by Plato, was then continued by Descartes and was a topic in essays by Montesquieu and John Locke.

CRITICAL THINKING …is the intellectual process of CONCEPTUALIZING, APPLYING, ANALYZING, SYNTHESIZING, and/or EVALUATING information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action

(Critical Thinking Community, 2002).

We are thinking critically when we:rely on reason rather than emotion, require evidence and follow evidence where

it leadsare concerned more with finding the best

explanation and asking questions.

(www.criticalreading.com)

The important thing is not to stop questioning (Albert Einstein).

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

are essential abilities in using intellectual tools by which one appropriately assesses thinking.

give students abilities to use the intellectual tools – CONCEPTS and PRINCIPLES that enable them to ANALYZE, ASSESS, and IMPROVE THINKING. 

are self-improvement in thinking through intellectual tools that assess thinking.

(Critical Thinking Community, 2009)

SO WHAT???HOW IMPORTANT IS CRITICAL THINKING

SKILLS IN RELATION TO MEANING?

HOW DO WE REALISE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS AND MEANING IN EFL TEACHING & LEARNING IN INDONESIA?

FIRST, ………..

EFL Teaching and Learning in Indonesia (1):

English remains “the first foreign language” in Indonesia.

It is a mandatory subject for students from elementary school up to university level.

English is not given any priority - treated in the same manner as other subjects.

Limited use of English in Indonesian societies.

EFL Teaching and Learning in Indonesia (2):

English teaching still deals mainly with the complex structures of the language, long reading passages, too technical vocabulary items, and not communicative activities.

Students are not given adequate opportunities to do collaborative tasks, i.e. pair/group work.

Meaningful activities, in which students can discuss and share ideas rarely exist due to the lecturers’ domination during teaching learning process.

EFL Teaching and Learning in Indonesia (3):

ENABLING CONDITIONS – such as, the existence or good language models, a great deal of exposure to the language in the real-life situations, critical thinking skills and the involvement in meaningful tasks – are largely absent from EFL teaching and learning Indonesia (Sukono, 2004).

Why Critical Thinking Skills and Meaning

Many lecturers and university officials complain that students do not use their critical thinking skills sufficiently in either oral and written assignments.

Most students are unenthusiastic to exchange ideas critically and tend to accept ideas without evaluating them properly, PROBABLY BECAUSE …

Some of them previously studied at secondary schools or pesantren which typically did not apply learner-centered approach and did not develop students’ critical thinking skills well.

The Realization of Critical Thinking Skills and Meaning

English lecturers need to present alternatives, different ways of interpreting texts and different conceptions of the world.

learning is improved through increased motivation and the study of natural language seen in meaningful contexts.

critical thinking skills and meaning can be realized when lecturers do collaborative activities.

BUT HOW?

PRACTICE

For practical reasons, the writer will apply a series of teaching stages in a reading lesson.

The teaching stages are as follow:

1. Eliciting ideas Give students one/two pics which

can be interpreted in different ways Ask students what the pictures are

about (discuss in pairs). Encourage them exchange ideas critically.

Dictate words from the reading text

2. Highlighting keywords and their meanings

- Check the words dictated (ask them to exchange their work first in pairs).- Check meaning of any words that may cause difficulty.

- to introduce the topic of the story to students- to give them an initial chance of using their critical thinking skills

to focus attention on key words and to check meanings of key words

3. Giving the title of the storyGive students the title of the story they will read

to prepare students mentally for the prediction task

4. Predicting text• In pairs/groups ask them

to predict the story based on the words given

• Ask few students to tell the class their ideas

• Encourage other groups to ask questions, share ideas and even criticize each other .

-to prepare students mentally before reading the text- to give the second chance to exchange ideas critically

5. Ordering jumbled paragraphs/Skimming• Hand out cut up version of the

text• Ask students to skim the story

and order the paragraphs• Ask them what they looked for

to help them decide on the order of the paragraphs

to apply group work in order to negotiate meaning and to do skimming

6. Listening for the right order

Play a cassette telling the right order of the story

to provide the correct order and a reason for gist reading

to provide the correct order and a reason for gist readingto provide the correct order and a reason for gist readingto provide the correct order and a reason for gist readingto provide the correct order and a reason for gist reading

7. Reading comprehensionAsk some short questions based on the story

to focus on overall meaning or main ideas in the text

8. Acting out the story/Speaking

-Put students into groups , one person perform one character in the story.

- Ask them to discuss the ‘scenario in group.

-Act out the story

-to give them the last chance of using their critical thinking skills-- to measure students’ comprehension in a fun, communicative way.

to measure students’ comprehension in a fun, non verbal way.

Conclusion

Critical thinking skills and meaning can be realized in collaborative activities.

Therefore, English lessons need more STT than TTT.

Involving critical thinking skills and meaning, should be reasonably inter-related and suitable to the students’ level and needs.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!