Background
Many ESL students may not be used to
thinking critically, especially in English.
This seminar aims to introduce some methods for teaching students how to
think critically. The techniques are particularly aimed at students who wish to
study at undergraduate or postgraduate level at an English speaking university
or further education institute of some kind. Some of the tasks suggested here
would also make interesting tasks for upper-intermediate or advanced students
of general English. The notes also contain some suggestions as to how the
activities given could be adapted to take into account factors such as
differing levels of students and different teaching aims.
The materials for all the activities follow the Trainer’s notes. Copy
one page for each student or one per pair or group if you prefer the students
to work that way.
First of all, to introduce the
session, give the participants 3-5 minutes to consider the following questions:
1. Why
do we need to think?
2. When
do our students need to think?
3. Why
do our students need to think in English?
Write down suggested answers on the
board. Among possible answers are the following:
1. Why
do we need to think?
·
To solve
problems arising from any situation: the problems can be at any level, and the
solution may be conventional or novel.
·
To make plans
for the future.
·
To make choices
(for example for purchases or activities).
2. When
do our students need to think?
·
In essay
writing.
·
In reading
comprehension activities, and evaluating written material.
·
In exam
preparation.
·
In exams.
·
In
task-oriented activities.
3. Why do our students need to think in English?
·
To help avoid
the need for translation.
·
To write and
speak more natural English.
Each of the following “tasks” will
take at least 5 minutes and probably more so you will not have time to run the
whole session in 60 minutes. Some
options:
·
You may wish to
carry out only some of the tasks, especially if it appears that you will run
out of time. I suggest that you try
tasks 1,2,3,7 and 8 in that order if time permits; the others could be done as
optional “homework”.
·
Another
approach may be to spend just 4 or 5 minutes on each task, just to give people
an overview of some techniques for encouraging critical thinking. This would
mean that each task is left incomplete, but people could be given the answers
very quickly.
Allow one or two minutes (I suggest
not much longer – it could take up too much time) on each task for discussion
on how the task concept could be adapted for different levels of student or for
different purposes. The times students would need for each of these tasks are
of course much greater that those I have allowed for participants, perhaps by a
factor of two or three at least.
In the following notes, the word
“student” refers to participants in the session and students in the classroom.
Task one: “odd word out”
Aim: to develop
the students’ abilities to see that there may be more than one “correct” answer
to any question and that the teacher may not know all or any of the answers.
Most of the questions are ambiguous, so there are many possible answers.
Procedure: The students
can work through the questions individually then compare answers in pairs or
groups, before having a brief whole class discussion. Insist that the students justify
their choices. Possible answers:
(1)
potato (it’s
not a fruit), lemon (can’t eat the skin)
(2)
strawberry (not
a citrus fruit)
(3)
bicycle (no
engine)
(4)
Walkman (does
not show images, is a brand name); video-recorder (hyphenated); computer (multipurpose)
(5)
Singaporean (it
is not a language, just a nationality)
(6)
tea (comes from
a leaf); Cola (drunk cold, carbonated)
(7)
New York (two words), Sydney (southern
hemisphere)
(8)
best (only
adjective), baby (cannot precede “friend”)
(9)
snake (not a
mammal), sheep (irregular plural)
(10)
tennis (not a
team game), hockey (can be played on ice); rugby (uses an oval ball)
How could it be adapted?
Possible answers: by altering the
vocabulary, by basing the choices on a grammar theme, e.g. past participles,
plurals etc).
Task two: what do we know is true?
Aim: to develop
the students’ abilities in critical reading and reading for implicit/explicit
messages; missing information etc.
Procedure: The students read the brief passage
then answer questions 1-9. If the students say that the statement is in the
text, ask them to show you.
Task three: introduction to “6 thinking hats”
Aim: to develop the students’ abilities in: critical
thinking, putting forward suggestions, agreeing and disagreeing, using the
language of debate.
This task is
based on the book Six Thinking Hats
by Edward de Bono. The book aims to develop people’s ability to think logically
and thoroughly about an issue. It identifies six different modes of thinking,
each labelled a “hat”.
Procedure: give the handout to the students, and
go through it with them. Explain any unfamiliar vocabulary. (Some students may
have heard of Edward de Bono). Explain that it is a way of thinking broadly
about a problem or issue. You can then give them a problem or an issue to
discuss, using the hats method. Obviously, you can use any topic. Some that you
may like to use are:
·
Smoking should
be made illegal.
·
Tertiary
education should be free.
·
Our country
should allow free immigration to everyone.
You can assign a “hat” to an
individual or group of students. They can then come up with arguments or ideas
that a person “wearing” that hat would use.
How could it be adapted?
Students could draw up a list of
phrases to use showing different levels of agreement or disagreement. The
technique can also be used by students to prepare essays. TV debates could be
analysed in terms of which “hat” speakers are wearing at any particular time.
Task four: palindrome puzzle
Aim: to encourage
students to look for patterns in language.
Procedure: Give the handout to the students (one
each or one per pair) and give them 5 minutes or so to come up with answers.
Tell them not to worry about the vocabulary. If they need further help, suggest
that they look for patterns.
Answers:
Gary knits a stinky rag
(They are both palindromes, they
read the same backwards or forwards.)
How could it be adapted?
Use numbers? Other sentences with
different patterns?
Task five: who owns the zebra?
Aim: task-oriented
language production, logical thinking, problem solving.
Procedure: Give the handout to the students (one
each or one per pair). Give them 15 minutes or so to come up with answers (in
the session, there will only be time to start the task). Some students may draw
tables; some may cut out pieces of paper and move them around. It could be
finished as a homework exercise.
Answers:
Yellow
|
Blue
|
Red
|
Ivory
|
Green
|
Norwegian
|
Ukrainian
|
New Zealander
|
Italian
|
Japanese
|
Apples
|
Onions
|
Mushrooms
|
Cake
|
Bananas
|
Water
|
Tea
|
Milk
|
Orange juice
|
|
Fox
|
Horse
|
Snails
|
Dog
|
Zebra
|
How could it be adapted? In this
case, analyse how they did the task
and whether this reflected their learning styles.
Task six: Country doctor or Jean Valjean
Aim: task-oriented
language production, moral dilemma, justifying decisions.
Procedure: Give the handout to the students (one
each or one per pair) and give them 10 minutes or so to come up with answers.
The emphasis here is not on what decision they would make, but why
they made it. They can discuss what ethical principles are involved. The
country doctor problem could be looked at in a table: justification for
treating the teenagers, justification for not treating the teenagers,
justification for treating the farmer’s wife, justification for not treating
the farmer’s wife. Students may need to be reminded that in a rural situation
there may be no ambulance that could arrive in time and the doctor MUST decide.
Answers:
Jean Valjean. Any answer
could be valid. Principles involved may include (1) “the greatest good for the
greatest number” – Valjean should not
confess; (2) we should never use (disadvantage) one person to achieve an
objective – Valjean should confess –
the beggar is innocent. (Adapted from “Les Miserables”, Victor Hugo.)
Country doctor. Again any answer could be valid. What ethical dilemmas are involved?
Should a promise be kept? Does the age of the patients influence the decision?
Does the cause of the problem? Would a decision to treat the teenagers be
different if alcohol was involved?
Task seven: pilot’s son, high blood pressure, and
riddle
Aim: to develop the students’ abilities
in: logical thinking, reasoning, looking for unjustified and misleading
assumptions or false assumptions, critical
thinking, putting forward suggestions, agreeing and disagreeing, using the
language of debate.
.
Procedure: Give the handouts to the students, and
allow them 10 minutes or more to come up with answers. For questions (1) and
(2), the students may well have made assumptions that cause them difficulties.
For question (3), they need to look very closely at the actual wording.
Answers:
(1) The pilot is the boy’s mother (pilots do not
have to be men).
(2) Gerald is a giraffe (does having a name make you
human?).
(3) The man had one eye (so he didn’t have “eyes”, he had
an eye.), and he took one plum and left one plum (“the plums” would imply all
the plums).
Task eight: choices
Answers:
(1) Which are more
dangerous: tigers or mosquitoes?
Mosquitoes kill more people through
the diseases they transmit, so they are more “dangerous” looked at from a
global perspective. From an individual
perspective, tigers are more dangerous (which would you rather have in this
room now?). In an area where tigers are
endemic, tigers may be more of a danger.
(2) Which is more
useful: a pen or a computer?
What does useful mean? If it means
versatile, the computer wins. If it means used by most people or more often,
the pen may win. In an area with no electricity, the pen may be more
convenient.
(3) Which is more
convenient: buses or cars?
What does convenient imply?
Faster? A car may not be faster in a big
city. Cheaper? Probably a bus is
cheaper. More flexible? A car is better.
Does it depend on the length of the journey or the cargo to be carried?
(4) Which is more
expensive: an old car or a new car?
What does “expensive” mean? The
purchase price of a used car may be lower (unless it is a vintage car perhaps).
If you add in maintenance, a new car may be cheaper. New cars typically use
less petrol than older cars.
(5) Which is the more useful language: English or
Chinese?
What does “useful” mean? The
language which is spoken by most people? (Chinese) The language spoken in more
countries? (English). Does useful depend
on the location (English in England,
Chinese in China etc)? Or on the field of study? (for example which would be
the best language for studying Asian traditional medicines?)
(6) Which causes
more illness: smoking or drinking alcohol?
There may be a clear answer from
global statistics. Chronic smoking gives
long term problems, even at low levels, but alcohol does not. In the short term, excess alcohol is far more
dangerous.