Teaching Critical Thinking Skill in An EFL Academic Writing Class: Perceptions and Practices

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the teachers’ perceptions and practices on the teaching of critical thinking skill in an academic writing class. A qualitative approach based on a case study was implemented with two EFL university teachers and six students taken from those two classes. The data was taken through interview and classroom observation. The findings indicated that teachers perceive the teaching of critical thinking in academic writing as the teaching of the ways to convey arguments or reasoning about the selected topic. They viewed that arguments can be conveyed through critical thinking subskills such as analyzing and evaluating their writing's content knowledge, synthesizing, confirming their position as a writer, and choosing appropriate linguistic devices. Furthermore, the teachers are familiar with the subskills of critical thinking skill introduced by Finken & Ennis (1993) and Cottrell (2005). Additionally, they recognize the importance of teaching critical thinking in academic writing, particularly in argumentative essays. In this case, the teachers used some ways to embody their perceptions in their academic writing class. They implemented promoting interaction between students such as group work with three to five students, peer work, and discussion; asking open-ended questions; allowing sufficient time for students to reflect on the questions asked or problems posed; and teaching for transfer such as giving explanations and providing consultations. Furthermore, the teachers are expected to provide the students a great deal of assistance in teaching programs that can improve the students’ critical thinking skills.

Keywords

Perceptions, Practices, Critical Thinking Skills, Academic Writing.