Language study in higher education and the development of criticality¹

Abstract

This article explores the development of criticality in Modern Languages graduates in the UK. It is based on a larger research project investigating the development of criticality in (initially) two academic disciplines through the detailed analysis of a large corpus of qualitative data. This includes student interviews, teacher interviews, classroom observation, written and oral work produced by students, documentation produced for courses, and policy statements from national and institutional sources. This article focuses on the relationship between the Modern Languages curriculum, particularly language teaching and learning, and the development of criticality. Drawing upon evidence from the qualitative data, it outlines the ways in which the courses can be seen to contribute to the development of wider social competences. Finally it discusses the distinctiveness of the contribution to criticality development provided by the cross‐cultural and cross‐linguistic experience of Modern Languages undergraduates.

“Languages in the workplace”: embedding employability in the foreign language undergraduate curriculum

“…Findings from this study echo to an extent Brumfit et al (2005), who found that in language modules "the focus on criticality development itself is less central than in other areas of the ML curriculum, especially the 'content' courses" (p. 159). In interviews, both staff and students across all four universities referred to upper-level or content modules as the area which contributed the most to students' development of intercultural competence and criticality, yet content-based language courses were also cited.…”

21st Century Skills: Literacy-Based Learning in Academic Debate Classes for University Students

“…Debating practices cover most of the cognitive principles of language pedagogy. The role of autonomous learning might help the learners to be more knowledgeable beyond the classroom as well as have wider registers and intercultural knowledge; content, language skills, and intercultural knowledge become essential aspects that might increase language skills [12].…”

Critical Thinking in ELT: Theory and Practice

“…Some researchers, as stated in the previous section above, only proposed a critical thinking model consisting of knowledge, comprehension, inference, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation or only investigated wether the abilty to analyze, evaluate, comprehend occur that sound not applicable (Hosseini et al, 2012;Wang, 2009;Tung and Chang, 2009;Ghanizadeh and Mirzaee, 2012;Brumfit et.al, 2005;Mok, 2009). They directly use materials and media such literary texts or passages, movies, and pictures to check students' critical thinking.…”

“…For example, some critical questions like 'what moral can you get from the story?' or what messages can you derive from the story' were raised based on the passages or texts (Brumfit, 2005;Liaw, 2007). They take some materials not only from then textbooks but also from other source in order to represent every single critical thinking skill (Mok, 2009;Wang, 2009;Jantrasakul, 2012).…”