The interplay of oral English development and critical thinking training in a centralized EFL curriculum

Abstract

This paper reports on a study which explored how critical thinking can be integrated into a centralized EFL curriculum and how critical thinking can develop college students’ oral English proficiency. The study implemented activities such as redefining the pre-set assessment of the students’ performance in the class, providing supplements, peer reviewing, asking guiding questions and doing repeated revisions. Using qualitative data from observation and interviews this paper identifies the track of a three-stage conceptual development in the students’ oral presentations as well as the development of more fluent and interactive oral speech. The findings show students changing from simply assembling information to arguing with the support of evidential connections and finally to generalizing. The paper offers the pedagogical implication that critical thinking training is a useful option for advanced EFL courses.