Vietnamese EFL Students’ Critical Thinking In An English Literature Course

Abstract

While critical thinking is one of the ultimate requirements for students and is integrated into assessment practices in higher education, there has not been a definitive view of what it means and how it can be achieved. This limitation challenges students when they neither recognize the need to demonstrate critical thinking nor successfully perform it. To reconceptualize critical thinking in higher education, this study emphasizes how critical thinking is defined, performed, and evaluated in an English Literature course in Vietnamese higher education. Following the analyses of the course documents, the students’ writing with the lecturer’s comments, and the interview with the lecturer, the study revealed the distinctive view of critical thinking in relation to the characteristics of the writing genre and the Literature discipline. For critical thinking being discipline-oriented and genre-based, successfully performing critical thinking was also found challenging to the students given their limited understanding of the lecturer’s conceptualization of critical thinking in this particular course. This study therefore suggests pedagogical implications to support the explication of this concept to students to improve their academic performances.

Exploring Vietnamese EFL Students' Perceptions towards Literature Courses in English Studies Program

“…Despite the importance of literature in language learning, limited research specifically examines EFL students' perceptions of literature courses in the Vietnamese context. Additionally, the existing literature tends to focus on the perceptions of literature courses from the perspective of teachers or a broader range of students rather than specifically EFL students (Al-Matrafi, 2022;Amalyah, 2021;Bloemert et al, 2019;Chi, 2022;Le et al, 2022;Lien, 2014). Therefore, this proposed study would aim to fill the gap in literature by exploring the perceptions of literature courses among Vietnamese EFL students in the English Studies Program.…”