Critical thinking skills in EFL learning: what and how?

Abstract

Recently, English language teaching has been a room in developing critical thinking skills for EFL students. For many years, English has been an internationally accepted language allowing people from different countries to communicate and the need for critical thinking skills cannot be neglected in the communication. Exchanging ideas, opinions, critiques, and many more have become the main concerns on EFL learning over the past two decades. This paper overviews the issues and trends of critical thinking skills based on the literature reviews in EFL teaching and learning. It then deals with the practical implications of teaching critical thinking for English skills – speaking, reading, listening, and speaking. It firstly presents the theoretical framework of the critical thinking paradigm in EFL teaching and learning following the components and teaching pathways in EFL classes. Future directions for critical thinking research are also discussed.

Keywords: critical thinking, EFL learning, English skills