Critical Thinking Skills for ESL Students

Trainer’s notes

 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.

Possible answers:

(1)          the text says this “ .. drove a car into a car park..”.

(2)          no information.

(3)          no information (the man said “give me the keys “ (not car keys).

(4)          no information (the owner of the car and the driver may not be the same person).

(5)          no information.

(6)          the text says this “ …shortly after …”.

(7)          no information ( the police arrival may have been a coincidence).

(8)          no information (the text says a police officer came, it could have been a police     woman).

(9)          no information (there are at least three people: the young man, the older man and the             police officer).

The text misses out much information: Are the driver and car owner the same person?  Did the driver park and get out of the car? What keys did the older man demand? Why did the police come? Why was the car driven away quickly? Explaining the background of the story could be an exercise in creative writing.

How could it be adapted? By using more complex or simple texts, looking at advertising or similar material.

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

Pull up if I pull up

(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	Coffee
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.

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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

Aim: To give students practice in closely examining questions (for exams in particular) and defining terms.

Procedure: Give the handouts to the students, and emphasise that they need to look closely at the words used, particularly the adjectives.

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.