Strategies Enhance Critical Thinking Ability in Teaching EL as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The current study tries to explore the integration of teaching strategies designed to enhance critical thinking skills within English language instruction. The primary objective is to examine how English language instructors employ pedagogical approaches to foster critical thinking in their classrooms and to explore the interplay between critical thinking development and the English language learning process. By analyzing the relationship between critical thinking sub-skills—such as analysis, inference, comprehension, and evaluation—and the overall quality of English language acquisition, the research seeks to determine whether improvements in these cognitive skills contribute to enhanced language proficiency. Additionally, the study proposes innovative teaching and learning strategies aimed at equipping the university instructors and EL students with practical tools to plan and implement effective critical thinking exercises. The researcher has applied a questionnaire that is addressed to the third year English language students and  many interviews have been arranged with the instructors who teach different modules in the same department. The findings of this research are expected to provide valuable insights into the dual objectives of improving critical thinking and language learning outcomes, offering actionable strategies that can be applied in the class for the sake of enhancing EL students’ critical thinking skill.