Teaching critical thinking in EFL classroom : students and teachers' perspectives

Abstract EN

The present article investigates the perspectives of students and teachers towards the teaching of critical thinking in EFL classroom.

It also explores the way teachers conceptualise the term in their teaching practices as well as the approaches and methods they adopt to teach the concept of critical thinking.

In this regard, 14 Algerian English language teachers were sent an online questionnaire.

Nine narrative journals have also been analysed by means of descriptive and analytic methods with first year English degree students, at the department of English, University of Algiers 2 (Algeria).

In addition, ten empirical studies which have relation with the topic under investigation have been examined to reinforce the analysis and discussion of the data obtained.

The results of the questionnaire indicated that the majority of participants conceptualise critical thinking as reflective judgment and most of them do introduce the concept in their classes.

For the narrative journals, the participants showed awareness of the importance of critical thinking not just in their learning processes but also in their whole life in general.

Finally, the results of the empirical studies revealed the positive perspectives of teachers towards the teaching of critical thinking in EFLclassroom.

The studies also confirmed that explicit instruction sounds an effective strategy that promotes students' critical thinking skills.

The article concludes with the notion of reconceptualising the concept of critical thinking in education and making it the corner stone in all the modules at university level.