The what, why, and how of critical thinking in an ESL/EFL classroom in the new normal and post-pandemic time.

1. ENHANCING
THE 21ST CENTURY
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
OF ESL/EFL LEARNERS
Rachel Luna Peralta, LPT,
MM, MA
Macao Institute for Tourism Studies
International Conference on Applied
Linguistics and Literary Studies
November 13-15, 2020

2. OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
CRITICAL THINKING
WHAT
WHY
HOW

4. CRITICAL THINKING: FROM SCHOOL
TO SOCIETY
“A common complaint is
that entry-level
employees lack the
reasoning and critical
thinking abilities needed
to process and refine
information.” (Hirose, 1992,
para. 1)

5. CRITICAL THINKING: FROM SCHOOL
TO SOCIETY
Critical thinking skills play significant
roles not only in learners’ academic
achievements but also in their dynamic
life of workforce after graduation.
Hirose (1992) claims that numerous
large corporations all over the globe
deal with the lack of basic thinking
skills performed by recent college
graduates in their companies.

6. CRITICAL THINKING

7. CRITICAL THINKING

10. CRITICAL THINKING: WHAT?
"a process which stresses an attitude of
suspended judgment, incorporates logical
inquiry and problem solving, and leads to
an evaluative decision or action.” - NCTE
Committee on Critical Thinking and the
Language Arts
"critical thinking is reasonable, reflective
thinking that is focused on deciding what
to believe or do.“ (Ennis, 1987)
Involves reflection, analysis, and action

11. CRITICAL THINKING: WHAT?
In terms of its operationalization, critical thinking presumes a
repertoire of faculties:
articulation of ideas;
meaning elicitation;
consideration of divergent arguments and search of
evidence to evaluate the legitimacy of each one;
formulation of hypothesis;
justification of personal arguments and beliefs;
decision making;
problem solving;
monitoring and evaluation of personal cognitions and
actions

12. CRITICAL THINKING: WHY?
 Students are too often being
passive receptors of information.
Through technology, the amount
of information available today is
massive.
 What is heard (e.g., news reports,
public speakers, conversation) and
what is read (e.g., newspapers,
tabloids, Internet-based material)
is not necessarily accurate nor
free from bias

13. CRITICAL THINKING: WHY?

14. CRITICAL THINKING: WHY?
 Critical literacy takes learners beyond the
development of basic literacy skills such as
decoding, predicting, and summarizing and asks
them to become critical consumers of the
information they receive.
 Researchers claim that the language classroom
must nurture an environment providing modeling,
rehearsal, and coaching, for students and teachers
alike, to develop a capacity for informed
judgements (Brown, 1984; Hayes & Alvermann,
1986).

15. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?

16. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
The fundamental points of communicative approach are then
elaborated in the four basic qualities and should be achieved
by the students when learning English.
 When speaking, the students are able to find
what is appropriate to say, how it should be
said, and when, in different social situation in
which they find themselves.
When listening, the students can use all
contextual clues to get the meaning of what is
being said and how the message is being

17. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
When reading, the students are able to
construct the meaning based on the
messages provided by the text and in
transaction with genres and their own
reading purposes.
When writing, the students are able to
formulate their ideas into acceptable
written English language in accordance
with the writing situation and their own
writing purposes. (Musthafa, 2001, pp. 3-4, as

18. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
Critical thinking skills have been found
to help English Language Learners in
language acquisition, particularly
through increasing problem-solving
abilities, oral communication skills,
writing competence, and student
motivation.

19. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
However, teaching critical thinking skill is
considered to be a major challenge by many
ELL teachers because of a number of issues,
including students' lack of vocabulary and, in
some cases, students coming from prior
school environments where that skill was not
promoted.” (Ferlazzo, 2016)

20. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
“The inquiry-based approach provides a rich
context for student learning through real-
word questions and problems and allows for
the seamless integration of content standards
and soft skills, technology, critical thinking, as
well as collaboration and communication
through team work.” (Zamacona, 2016, p. 22)

21. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
A. Socratic
Questioning
Questions to clarify
What did you mean by…?
Can you give me an
example?
Could you explain a bit
more?
Questions to challenge assumptions
Why do you assume that…?
Is that always the case?
Why do we include and exclude?
Questions to probe evidence/reasons
What do you think causes this to
happen?
How do you know this?
Why do you say that?
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers” –
Voltaire

22. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
A. Socratic
Questioning
Questions to discover other
viewpoints/perspectives
What’s another way to look at this?
What are the advantages and
disadvantages of…?
Who benefits from this? Who would be
affected? What would be their views?
Why is this the best?
Questions that consider implications
and consequences
What are some possible consequences
of this?
How does ~ affect ~?
How does this tie in with what we
already know?
Questions about questions
Why did you ask that question?
What did you mean when you said ~?
What are you trying to find out with
that question?

23. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
B. Bloom’s Taxonomy

24. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
B. Bloom’s Taxonomy
http://cfg-ss.businesscatalyst.com/blooms/story_html5.html?fbclid=IwAR3IhV_twaeE36FobDHkb-ylGABZ2c-
af_ehLK8pKRFX2DLWgvqtLrMU6_c

25. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
B. Bloom’s Taxonomy
ABCD Model (Vdovina, 2013)
A – audience
B – behavior
C – condition
D – degree

26. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
B. ABCD Model: Reading a story and
thinking critically
Objective #1: Given the introductory part of the
story for reading (C), students divided into small
groups (A) will evaluate the main hero’s attitude
to the girl and compose (B) one clear and
coherent paragraph of 60 words per group
assessing the hero’s plan to improve the girl’s
intellectual skills (D).A – Audience B – Behavior C – Condition D –
Degree

27. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
B. ABCD Model: Reading a story and thinking
critically
Objective #2: Given one of the two following
parts of the story for skimming and scanning
(C) students divided into two groups (A) will
interpret and explain to each other the _______
(B) in less than 30 words (D).

28. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
B. ABCD Model: Reading a story and
thinking critically
Objective #3: Having read the last part of
the story (C), the students (A) will fill out
the gaps with ____ (D) and justify their
choice in the following discussion (B).

29. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
Thus, the verbs used to
write the objectives
(evaluate, compose,
interpret and explain,
elaborate, justify) can be
attributed to different
levels of the cognitive
domain of the revised
Bloom’s taxonomy
namely, the levels of
Understanding,
Analyzing, Evaluating,
and Creating.

31. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
C. De Bono’s Six Thinking
Hats
https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/b/six-thinking-
hats-examples
https://www.storyboardthat.com/blog/e/six-thinking-hats-in-
the-classroom

32. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
C. De Bono’s Six Thinking
Hats Discuss problems – piece of literature, current
events, poems, historical moment in time
 Analyze a text, movie, book and make students
react, respond, look at various
points/perspectives
 Carousel – place the hats at the different parts of
the room and let students walk around and
paste/write their idea on a topic/problem for
each hat/color
 Students think outside what they normally think
like
 Students dig dip, look at something from
different perspectives – multiple different points

33. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
C. De Bono’s Six Thinking
Hats Case study analysis
 Discussion forums
 All students, same hat
 Different groups, different hats
 Different groups, individuals within each group wears the same
hat
 Switch hats
 Guess the hat
 Writing/speaking assignments based on hat color
 Stretch it out
 Create a new hat

34. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
Cooperative Learning Strategies
Case Study /Discussion Method
Conference Style Learning
Use Writing Assignments
Dialogues
Written dialogues
Spontaneous Group Dialogue

35. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
Gap Fill In
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/gap-fill-poems
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams/grammar-and-vocabulary-
exams/complete-gaps
Argument Mapping
https://www.reasoninglab.com/critical/argument-mapping/
https://www.rationaleonline.com/
Fishbowl
https://fishbowl-game.com/
Debate
https://www.brainpop.com/games/argumentwars/
Inductive Learning
https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/inductive_reasoning.htm

36. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
Inductive Learning
https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/inductive_reasoning.htm
Freire’s Learning Sequence
https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/files/2018/02/freire-26rigwb-2di4iij.pdf
Media Analysis
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:media%20analysis
Problem Solving
https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/business-english/problem-solving
https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/search/problem+solving

37. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
 Attribute Linking—Building Community by Taking
Perspectives
https://www.letitripple.org/education-search/attribute-linking-building-community-by-taking-
perspectives/
 Barometer—Taking a Stand on Controversial Issues
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/barometer-taking-stand-
controversial-issues
https://coretools.ldc.org/minitasks/ea34b8d5-578b-48a6-9531-640cc27d4ad9
 Big Paper—Building a Silent Conversation
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/big-paper-silent-conversation
 Body Sculpting—Using Theatre to Explore Important
Ideas
http://www.cre8iowa.org/2015/10/30/critical-thinking-activities/
 Café Conversations
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/cafe-conversations

38. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
 Jigsaw—Developing Community and Disseminating
Knowledge
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/jigsaw-developing-community-and-disseminating-knowledge
 K-W-L Charts—Assessing What We Know/What We Still
Want to Learn
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/k-w-l-charts
 Think, Pair, Share—Facilitating Discussions in Small and
Large Groups
https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-pair-share
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-think-pair-share-
30626.html
 Town Hall Circle
https://www.redesignu.org/design-lab/learning-activities/town-hall-circle
 Reader’s Theater
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/readers-theater-giving-students-reason-read-aloud

39. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
DOWNLOADABLE LESSONS AND WORKSHEETS
Macmillan English Critical Thinking
http://www.macmillanenglish.com/life-skills/critical-thinking/
https://api.macmillanenglish.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog_and_Resources/Resources/Files/Critical-thinking-
open-mind-lesson-2015.pdf
https://api.macmillanenglish.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog_and_Resources/Resources/Files/Critical-thinking-
open-mind-teachers-notes-2015.pdf
https://api.macmillanenglish.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog_and_Resources/Resources/Files/Life-skills-2015-
lesson-10.pdf
https://api.macmillanenglish.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog_and_Resources/Resources/Files/Life_Skills-
Lesson21-CriticalThinking.pdf
https://api.macmillanenglish.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog_and_Resources/Resources/Files/Life_Skills-
ForFun21-CriticalThinking.pdf
https://api.macmillanenglish.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Blog_and_Resources/Resources/Files/Life_Skills-For_Fun-
Critical_Thinking.pdf
https://www.onestopenglish.com/download?ac=11346

40. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
DOWNLOADABLE LESSONS AND WORKSHEETS
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving - ESL EFL Lessons and
Activities
https://www.teach-this.com/functional-activities-
worksheets/critical-thinking-problem-solving
teAchnology: The Online Teacher Resource Critical Thinking
Worksheets
http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/critical_thinking/

41. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?
ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES
Critical Thinking on the Web: A Directory of Quality
Online Sources
http://www.austhink.com/critical/index.htm
TED Ed Lessons on Critical Thinking
http://ed.ted.com/lessons?category=critical-
thinking

43. CRITICAL THINKING

44. CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISE
1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All animals attend
except one. Which animal does not attend?
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles and you
do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

45. CRITICAL THINKING: HOW?

47. REFERENCES
British Council – Teaching English. (2016, December). Larry Ferlazzo: Critical thinking. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/larry-ferlazzo/larry-ferlazzo-critical-
thinking?utm_source=TE_Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-teachingenglish
Brown, A. L. (1984). "Teaching students to think as they read: Implications for curriculum reform." Paper commissioned by the American Educational Research Association
Task Force on Excellence in Education,
October 1984. 42pp. [ED 273 567]
Brown, K. (1999). "Developing critical literacy." Sydney, Australia: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.
Chong, C. S. (2016, May 16). Critical thinking skills in the classroom: Socrates, Bloom and De Bono. English Teaching Professional.
https://www.etprofessional.com/critical_thinking_skills_in_the_classroom_socrates_bloom_and_de_bono_25769840031.aspx
Ennis, R. (1987). "A taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities." In Joan Baron and Robert Sternberg (Eds.) Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and practice. W.H.
Freeman
Halvorsen, A. (2005). Incorporating Critical Thinking Skills Development into ESL/EFL Courses. The Internet TESL Journal, 11 (3). http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Halvorsen-
CriticalThinking.html
Hayes, D. A., & Alvermann, D. E. (1986, April). "Video assisted coaching of textbook discussion skills: Its impact on critical reading behavior." Paper presented at the annual
meeting of the American Research
Association, San Francisco. ED 271 734
Hirose, S. (1992). Critical thinking in community colleges. ERIC Digest. https://www.ericdigests.org/1992-2/critical.htm
Masduqi, H. (2011). Critical thinking skills and meaning in English Language Teaching. TEFLIN Journal 22(2), 185-200. file:///C:/Users/rachel/Downloads/26-80-1-
PB%20(1).pdf
Oxford University Press ELT. (2016, December 15). 21st century skills. https://oupeltglobalblog.com/tag/21st-century-skills/
Oxford University Press ELT. (2013, October 9). Critical Thinking in your lessons – It’s easier than you think! https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2013/10/09/critical-thinking-in-
your-lessons-its-easier-
than-you-think/
Vdovina, E. (2013). Developing critical thinking in the English Language classroom: A lesson plan. ELTA Journal, 1 (1), 54-68. http://eltajournal.org.rs/wp-
content/uploads/2013/12/VII-

48. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZssjOKiFH0I22w1VTPEdD3Pb4jsg6kOD?us
p=sharing