Vietnamese Tertiary EFL Teachers’ Perception Towards Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Abstract

Critical thinking has been emphasized as one of the paramount thinking skills in the 21st academic curriculum in the world. Especially in the context of language learning and teaching where traditional pure recitation seems to result in little positive outcomes, the engagement of thinking in learning proves to be necessary than ever before. Still, the question of whether EFL teachers – as direct guiders in the classroom – have been exposed to the concept, have thoroughly grasped it and have been equipped with adequate methods and tools for the embedding of critical thinking in daily lessons has not been fully addressed. This paper aims to provide a general viewpoint of Vietnamese ESL teachers’ perceptions towards critical thinking and present some of their current practices of critical thinking skills if there are. Emphasis placed upon the extent of understanding of critical thinking that EFL teachers show in comparison with the official definitions and how they apply what they understand towards the concepts of critical thinking skills in the ESL classroom. The data is collected through in-depth interviews of a number of experienced teachers. This paper is hoped to give EFL managers and practitioners rationales for the inclusion and exclusion of critical thinking in their classes and shed some light on how EFL teachers structure their lessons in order to promote this set of thinking skills.



Author Information
Anh Duong Thi Van, University of Economics and Finance, Vietnam
Tam Phan Vu Thanh, University of Economics and Finance, Vietnam

Paper Information
Conference: ECE2020
Stream: Teaching Experiences

This paper is part of the ECE2020 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Van A., & Thanh T. (2020) Vietnamese Tertiary EFL Teachers’ Perception Towards Critical Thinking in the Classroom ISSN: 2188-1162 The European Conference on Education 2020: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2020.12
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2020.12


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Posted by James Alexander Gordon