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Developing students' critical thinking in a Chinese EFL classroom
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Type
Thesis
Author
Cui, Ruiguo
Supervisor
Teo, Peter
Abstract
This practitioner research focuses on the development of students’ critical thinking in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in China’s universities. Critical thinking, as one of the 21st century skills, has been widely touted by researchers and educational practitioners around the world. Such an enthusiasm for critical thinking has also been palpable recently in China where critical thinking has long been neglected by the educational and political authorities. The pursuit of critical thinking is particularly necessary in China’s EFL classes which mainly focus on the knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary and ignore the function of English language as the medium of thinking. Although Chinese EFL educators and practitioners now take cognizance of the significance of critical thinking, not many are aware of how to promote students’ critical thinking in their classrooms.
In light of this, this study is aimed at exploring in a qualitative approach whether and how dialogic instruction can develop university students’ critical thinking in EFL classrooms in China. To achieve this purpose, an intervention programme of dialogic instruction including both the teacher and students was designed in this research to infuse the development of students’ critical thinking in an English class. This programme was implemented over fifteen lessons by the researcher himself in an intact English class at a university in the northern part of China. All fifteen lessons were video-recorded and transcripts were analysed in terms of teacher dialogic moves and student critical thinking using a coding system developed specifically for this purpose. The analysis found that the teacher has made some dialogic moves in an attempt to open classroom dialogue in which students have displayed some critical thinking skills. However, it was observed that most of the teacher dialogic moves were aimed at eliciting, supporting or extending student talk with only a few dialogic moves that involved integrating, i.e., asking one student to respond to another, and challenging. The findings show that dialogic instruction is potentially conducive to the development of students’ critical thinking but efforts would need to be made on the building of a dialogic environment and a critical culture in the classroom.
It is hoped that the findings of this study would help teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers to deepen their understanding of dialogic instruction and how it can facilitate the development of critical thinking in EFL contexts in China and beyond. It is also hoped that these findings will contribute to the research of critical thinking by extending the understanding of critical thinking and offering some insights into the application of critical thinking in the EFL classrooms in China. In this way, the findings may shed some light on how to develop students’ critical thinking in EFL classrooms, thus helping Chinese EFL teachers develop their own programme to foster students’ critical thinking.
In light of this, this study is aimed at exploring in a qualitative approach whether and how dialogic instruction can develop university students’ critical thinking in EFL classrooms in China. To achieve this purpose, an intervention programme of dialogic instruction including both the teacher and students was designed in this research to infuse the development of students’ critical thinking in an English class. This programme was implemented over fifteen lessons by the researcher himself in an intact English class at a university in the northern part of China. All fifteen lessons were video-recorded and transcripts were analysed in terms of teacher dialogic moves and student critical thinking using a coding system developed specifically for this purpose. The analysis found that the teacher has made some dialogic moves in an attempt to open classroom dialogue in which students have displayed some critical thinking skills. However, it was observed that most of the teacher dialogic moves were aimed at eliciting, supporting or extending student talk with only a few dialogic moves that involved integrating, i.e., asking one student to respond to another, and challenging. The findings show that dialogic instruction is potentially conducive to the development of students’ critical thinking but efforts would need to be made on the building of a dialogic environment and a critical culture in the classroom.
It is hoped that the findings of this study would help teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers to deepen their understanding of dialogic instruction and how it can facilitate the development of critical thinking in EFL contexts in China and beyond. It is also hoped that these findings will contribute to the research of critical thinking by extending the understanding of critical thinking and offering some insights into the application of critical thinking in the EFL classrooms in China. In this way, the findings may shed some light on how to develop students’ critical thinking in EFL classrooms, thus helping Chinese EFL teachers develop their own programme to foster students’ critical thinking.
Date Issued
2020
Call Number
PE1068.C6 Cui
Date Submitted
2020