UNDERSTANDING CRITICAL THINKING IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CLASSROOM By Anderson Francisco Guimarães Maia So what happens to thinking when you attach the word critical to it? Is this another Newfangled label that promotes a novel pedagogy or method for purely comercial reasons or other ulterior motivations without substantially affecting learning? Is this label bringing into English language teaching (ELT) something extraneous to communication skills, such as political causes and social concerns? We in the language teaching profession are rightly suspicious of anything that claims to be new, fashionable, or Revolutionary nowadays. For example, “Critical thinking” is definitely one of the Watchwords in today’s English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom; however, what do teachers really think about the issue? In order to investigate what EFL teachers in Brazil think about “critical thinking”, I recently conducted a survey with statements about the topic to which teachers were asked to agree or disagree using a 5-point scale. As a result, three major myths about critical thinking were found to be most common among Brazilian EFL teachers. Myth 1: Critical thinking should take place at the end of a lesson, after language has been taught. More than 70% of Brazilian EFL teachers declared to strongly agree that critical thinking takes place during language practice only. A strong belief among these teachers is that critical thinking is a result of using the language in speaking, listening, reading, or writing; not embedded in the language learning process. Critical thinking or higher order thinking is a concept based on learning taxonomies such as Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al, 2001). The idea is that some types of learning require more cognitive processes than others. In Bloom’s taxonomy, for example, skills involving analysis, evaluation, and synthesis are thought to be of a higher order, requiring different learning and teaching methods, than the learning of facts and concepts. As a consequence, it is possible for teachers to incorporate higher order thinking throughout the integration of language skills in the learning process. Myth 2: Critical thinking is a consequence of students’ mainstream education in Portuguese. There is not enough time to work it in Language Institutes . The survey conducted also pointed out that 56% of Brazilian EFL teachers either mostly or totally agree that critical thinking is a result of schooling in students’ native language. Unlike the first myth presented, this second misbelief goes beyond the classroom walls. It claims that critical thinking is a result of learners’ mainstream education only and that language institute programs are too busy to support higher order thinking skills. In fact, such programs can promote critical thinking in various ways as students have been learning in diverse ways themselves. One way is through well-designed communicative language classes where the choice of linguistic forms is a consequence of contextual demands. Another way is by offering alternative programs related to English learning outside the classroom. For example, reading clubs, chat cafés, karaoke sessions, movie exhibits, and drama clubs, to name a few. In programs like these, learners may have the opportunity to use higher order thinking by comparing and contrasting cultures, discussing cause and effect of social events in the world, identifying whole and parts in famous landmarks, or just summarizing the ideas from a movie. Myth 3: To teach critical thinking means to teach learning strategies. According to the survey conducted, 63% of EFL teachers in Brazil mostly or totally agree that teaching critical thinking is the same as teaching learning strategies. In this regard, it has been previously noted that teaching critical thinking is the explicit and monitored use of higher order thinking skills such as understanding, synthesizing, and analyzing. Teaching learning strategies, on the other hand, entails explicit and monitored use of mechanisms used to foster learning. Text extracted from https://www.richmondshare.com.br/understanding-critical-thinking -in-the-elt-classroom/ Accessed on April 28, 202 To the BNCC, criticality is a keyword in English language learning. However, the BNCC guidelines bear similarities and contrasts to the notion of criticality when opposed to what you read here. In this sense, it is correct to say that:

To both the text and the BNCC, criticality is related to thinking skills. In other words, both focus on learner cognition.

Both the text and the BNCC are based on Bloom’s hierarchical classification of thinking to define criticality in foreign language learning.

In the BNCC, criticality is not related to thinking; it is rather associated to material design.

The text restricts Critical Thinking to higher order thinking skills while the BNCC expands the notion of criticality to both individual and social aspects of foreign language learning.

Questão 2813730 de Língua Inglesa - FADESP 2023

Questão

ID 2813730

Disciplina: Língua Inglesa

Assunto: Interpretação de Texto | Text Interpretation

Ano: 2023 Banca: FADESP - Fundação de Amparo e Desenvolvimento da Pesquisa Órgão: Prefeitura Municipal de Bagre

UNDERSTANDING CRITICAL THINKING IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
CLASSROOM
By Anderson Francisco Guimarães Maia
So what happens to thinking when you attach the word critical to it? Is this another
Newfangled label that promotes a novel pedagogy or method for purely comercial
reasons or other ulterior motivations without substantially affecting learning? Is this label
bringing into English language teaching (ELT) something extraneous to communication
skills, such as political causes and social concerns? We in the language teaching
profession are rightly suspicious of anything that claims to be new, fashionable, or
Revolutionary nowadays. For example, “Critical thinking” is definitely one of the
Watchwords in today’s English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom; however, what do
teachers really think about the issue?
In order to investigate what EFL teachers in Brazil think about “critical thinking”, I
recently conducted a survey with statements about the topic to which teachers were
asked to agree or disagree using a 5-point scale. As a result, three major myths about
critical thinking were found to be most common among Brazilian EFL teachers.
Myth 1: Critical thinking should take place at the end of a lesson, after
language has been taught.
More than 70% of Brazilian EFL teachers declared to strongly agree that critical
thinking takes place during language practice only. A strong belief among these teachers
is that critical thinking is a result of using the language in speaking, listening, reading, or
writing; not embedded in the language learning process.
Critical thinking or higher order thinking is a concept based on learning taxonomies
such as Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al, 2001). The idea is that some types of
learning require more cognitive processes than others. In Bloom’s taxonomy, for example,
skills involving analysis, evaluation, and synthesis are thought to be of a higher order,
requiring different learning and teaching methods, than the learning of facts and concepts.
As a consequence, it is possible for teachers to incorporate higher order thinking
throughout the integration of language skills in the learning process.
Myth 2: Critical thinking is a consequence of students’ mainstream
education in Portuguese. There is not enough time to work it in Language
Institutes.
The survey conducted also pointed out that 56% of Brazilian EFL teachers either
mostly or totally agree that critical thinking is a result of schooling in students’ native
language. Unlike the first myth presented, this second misbelief goes beyond the
classroom walls. It claims that critical thinking is a result of learners’ mainstream
education only and that language institute programs are too busy to support higher
order thinking skills. In fact, such programs can promote critical thinking in various ways as
students have been learning in diverse ways themselves.
One way is through well-designed communicative language classes where the
choice of linguistic forms is a consequence of contextual demands. Another way is by
offering alternative programs related to English learning outside the classroom. For
example, reading clubs, chat cafés, karaoke sessions, movie exhibits, and drama clubs,
to name a few. In programs like these, learners may have the opportunity to use higher
order thinking by comparing and contrasting cultures, discussing cause and effect of
social events in the world, identifying whole and parts in famous landmarks, or just
summarizing the ideas from a movie.
Myth 3: To teach critical thinking means to teach learning strategies.
According to the survey conducted, 63% of EFL teachers in Brazil mostly or totally
agree that teaching critical thinking is the same as teaching learning strategies. In this
regard, it has been previously noted that teaching critical thinking is the explicit and
monitored use of higher order thinking skills such as understanding, synthesizing, and
analyzing. Teaching learning strategies, on the other hand, entails explicit and monitored
use of mechanisms used to foster learning.
Text extracted from https://www.richmondshare.com.br/understanding-critical-thinking
-in-the-elt-classroom/ Accessed on April 28, 202

To the BNCC, criticality is a keyword in English language learning. However, the BNCC guidelines bear similarities and contrasts to the notion of criticality when opposed to what you read here. In this sense, it is correct to say that:

Alternativa A:
To both the text and the BNCC, criticality is related to thinking skills. In other words, both focus on learner cognition.
Alternativa B:
Both the text and the BNCC are based on Bloom’s hierarchical classification of thinking to define criticality in foreign language learning.
Alternativa C:
In the BNCC, criticality is not related to thinking; it is rather associated to material design.
Alternativa D:
The text restricts Critical Thinking to higher order thinking skills while the BNCC expands the notion of criticality to both individual and social aspects of foreign language learning.

Estatísticas Cadernos

Questão 2813730

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