Critical Thinking and Iranian EFL Context

Abstract

Abstract-The advent of the information diffusion emanating from the information technology of the third millennium along with the revamped concept of literacy and intellectual understanding, and the demand for accountability as one of the prerequisites of modern societies has given birth to a movement resting on the idea that schools should be less concerned with imparting information and requiring the memorization of empirical data. Dealing with the extraordinary challenges of today's information society requires autonomous citizens equipped with "critical competence" (Feuerstein, 1999) whose meta-knowing is to be ameliorated through curriculum. The present study is an attempt to sketch the concept of critical thinking as a viable alternative in language education in Iranian EFL context. First, a number of definitions, along with the dimensions, of the concept from various scholars' viewpoints are put forward. Second, the typical features of critical thinkers and what resources they need are introduced. Third, the relation between critical thinking and learner autonomy is examined. Fourth, the relation between critical thinking and the instructional process is investigated. And finally, the issue from both theoretical and pedagogical standpoints in the contemporary Iranian EFL context is reviewed.

A Survey of EFL Teachers’ Attitudes towards Critical Thinking Instruction

“…In order to help learners to foster their CT and decision making ability, it is necessary for teachers to educate themselves ideally and be aware of their enormous responsibility in the classroom. In addition, to hold in-service training classes to sharpen teachers CT skills and improve their teaching techniques is of great importance in language learning setting (Fahim & Ahmadian, 2012).On the other hand, in order to improve teachers' capability for teaching CT, schools and institutions must provide them with required time and resources which are necessary for professional development to occur. By incorporating CT teaching in different classes, the educational program will produce the educated people who are able to make decisions more accurately and solve problems more effectively.…”

A Study of Relationship between Translation Studies Students’ Critical Thinking Ability and the Quality of Literary Prose Text Translation

“…The results showed that the self-regulation of EFL learners find out near 53 percent of the achievement of language but the CT of EFL learners find nearly 28 percent of the achievement of language. Fahim and Rezanejad (2014) considered the critical thinking in the EFL context of Iran. Hassani, Rahmani and Babaei (2013) investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' critical thinking and reading comprehension performance in journalistic texts.…”

Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension among Postgraduate Students: The Case of Gender and Language Proficiency Level

“…The critical thinking skills are (1) reasoning, (2) comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis, (3) interpretation, (4) judgment, and (5) evaluation. Adopting a cognitive perspective to critical thing and in an attempt to revise Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, Consequently, according to Fahim and Ahmadian (2012), developing students' evaluative and reflective skills are not well-regarded. Moreover, as Jalilifar (2010) pointed out, "despite the growing interest in learning English as a foreign language in Iran, students at college level seem rarely proficient enough to read and comprehend English language texts" (p. 98).…”