National Geographic Learning

Paul Dummett presents a few examples of what implicit and explicit critical thinking activities look like.

In our October article on the topic of Critical Thinking in ELT, my co-author Paul Dummett suggested that critical thinking in English language teaching should involve more than simply identifying fact from misinformation or searching texts for supporting evidence. We argue instead that critical thinking is more encompassing and should be viewed as a ‘critical disposition’ (Davis and Barnett, 2015) or as an enquiring mindset towards learning.

After years of talking and writing about critical thinking (CT) and of reading and listening to others do the same, John Hughes and I decided that we should codify our thoughts on the subject. We knew what constituted a critical thinking activity and what did not, but we were less clear about how to define CT’s place in ELT materials. What did it mean in relation to the teaching of the four skills and to grammar and vocabulary?