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6-Developing Critical Thinking For Children Through EFL Lear
6-Developing Critical Thinking For Children Through EFL Lear
Activities
Assessment Techniques
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Developing Critical Thinking for Children through
EFL Learning
Abstract
This Paper is an attempt to determine what critical thinking means for
children. A working definition of critical thinking is specified to this paper.
Developing critical thinking skills for children is focused. As well as,
different learning strategies and activities are enhanced.
Teachers of English as a foreign language, supervisors, and
researchers in the field should increase awareness of using various activities
to develop critical thinking skills through language learning in the early
stages of education.
This is realized in an authentic and live context. So, both language and
critical thinking become a life skill. Various foreign language teaching
approaches are adopted and referred to in this paper.
Language is thought. Those attempts to separate both phenomena,
actually characterize the learning context with failure.
Active learning forms do support the context in which freedom of
action is the dominant feature. This provides opportunities for the
realization of integrative critical thinking and language skills as a common
feature of the current needs of this age.
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Different approaches, teaching / learning strategies, as well as,
using interesting topics, increase the learners’ awareness of such an
integrative identity and critical thinking that takes place in a non
traditional Context
Critical
Actions
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This three dimensional process of higher – order thinking, taking
place in a collaborative learning context to develop both thinking and
language skills, elicits the learners’ following skills:
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At the same time, these integrative thinking and language skills
do occur in a much more comprehensive world than a mere
mechanical process of language learning.
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Refined study skills as an immediate result of feeling the
need to raise questions, write a statement, suggest an idea,
oppose / support others’ opinions. So, learners’ motives pave the
way for learning different
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Hence, children will be close to the family and community contexts
through the development of their personal skills.
This should draw our attention to the aims we need to realize out
of teaching the language, such an interactive context, the learners’
choice of guidelines, the mental processes they demonstrate and the
decisions they evoke, which demands much more challenges other
than learning about language.
Identify the resource, the producer of the text and the stream
of thought.
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Environmental topics represent a rich resource of content
Environmental issues are real and familiar to children
Environmental topics motivate children for further learning.
This provides learners with real rich resources for more choices
and variety of real experiences.
So, they should possess both critical thinking and language skills
to match the needs of such learning.
Inquiry Approach:
Children are not taught to live in a static world, but one with
increasing complicity. Most of our children are going to live in more
complicated contexts, and education is not to give them ready made
solutions.
Questions with Why and How are often reflective questions that
elicit the children’s ability to:
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Enhance assessment skills
Problem Solving:
Systemic Approach:
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This approach is also linked to children’s lives, interests, and
motivation to participate actively in varied learning contexts.
This Implies:
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The following features support critical thinking practice in a
linguistic context:
Posing questions
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talk about dreams and their future hopes and the imaginative world
they dream to live in.
MCQ
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1.5. We cannot depend on environmental topics as a rich resource of
content ( ).
2. Complete:
A B
1. Rich contexts for learning 1. as a result of raising arguments
2. Critical thinking practice and creating new comprises.
can 2. should formulate the base line
3. Thinking skills and for learning to support both
language skills learning and product.
4. Individual and 3. raise successful questions rather
collaborative contexts than give readymade answers.
5. Critical thinking enhances 4. enable learners to formulate
learners' decision making futuristic visions.
process 5. represent a main dimension of a
given critical action.
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Further Readings
Helping Students Learn Critical Thinking Skills: A Resource for Teachers
http://www.etsu.edu/criticalthinking/default.asp
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