ACADEMIA Letters

Developing Critical Thinking Skills: A Panacea for ESL

Learning Challenges
Suvarna Lakshmi G

The Covid-19 Pandemic has brought about the new normal into our lives. The Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), and education-technology (ed-tech) tools have emerged
as the only means of educational activity, the amount of information available and the ex-
pected knowledge levels in general and technical knowledge levels of each individual have
increased exponentially and the time to learn and cope with change have reduced drastically.
In India, there are two major challenges faced by learners: learning the skills and concepts
faster, and functioning in English (second language) for to realise all the goals of learning.
The synchronous learning on online platforms has brought in unforeseen challenges to the
teachers that include:

1. the strength of the class (not less than 60 per an online session),

2. handling the ed-tech tools to connect with the learners

3. ensuring enhancement of language proficiency

4. assessing the progress

5. the LMS of the institution may or may not have included appropriate proctorial system
for assessment

6. consistent power and internet connectivity problems

7. ensuring cognitively active presence of every learner need a special mention here and
many more of the type.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Suvarna Lakshmi G, suvarna1974@gmail.com

Citation: G, S.L. (2021). Developing Critical Thinking Skills: A Panacea for ESL Learning Challenges.
Academia Letters, Article 211. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL211.

1
 The conventional divide that exists between the privileged and the underprivileged classes
of people could be clearly seen in terms of the affordability of the digital gadgets and the net
connectivity required for the online classes. In addition, every class has mixed-ability and
heterogeneous groups of learners. Learning online through various sources is reliant on their
English language proficiency of the learners. Though the online tools help them get good
scores on their grade cards, in reality they fail to read, write or speak in the absence of some
external support, be it teacher or the others involved in their language learning process.
In this ground, it is experimented and proposed that developing critical thinking skills in
the learners will help them overcome the learning challenges with emphasis on learning the
English language for purposes. Learners who are critical thinkers tend to ease the job of the
teacher in the areas where they have to manage the large classes and cater to the learners with
different learning abilities. The pace of learning can also be increased so that the problem of
time constraints and quantum of learning are suitably addressed.
Critical thinking includes a plethora of cognitive abilities: questioning, comprehending,
reasoning, inferencing, interpreting, judging, decision making, brain storming, experiment-
ing, problem solving, creative thinking, exploring different possibilities, independent think-
ing, drawing logical conclusions, analyzing, synthesizing, applying and many more. How-
ever, for the purpose of this study the concept of critical thinking has been defined as any goal
oriented conscious thinking skill (Suvarna,2013).
Learners become responsible for their learning only when they are trained to be critical
thinkers using teacher-independent-tailor made learning tasks. This would result in: learning
while doing, long-term memory (Moseley, 2005 et. al.) as they work and learn, autonomy in
the process of learning and enhanced learning ability in general and language learning ability
in particular, skills and abilities required for quick change and adaptability. The role of the
learning facilitator is to design different types of learning tasks and activities that will aid
active learning while appropriately addressing the needs and cognitive levels of different sets
of learners.
The types of tasks that enable learners become critical thinkers:

1. Questioning: Questioning allows the teachers and learners to collaboratively generate

(a). open-ended questions for generating a classroom discussion on a text/concept to
be learnt (b). a question paper/assignment for assessment on a particular learning con-
cept or skill. Questioning aids learners’ reading comprehension at factual, inferential
and interpretative levels, participation in the learning process (intrinsic motivation), get
cognitively engaged with the text while reading and participating in discussions which
will pitch better language learning environment instilling courage to question.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Suvarna Lakshmi G, suvarna1974@gmail.com

Citation: G, S.L. (2021). Developing Critical Thinking Skills: A Panacea for ESL Learning Challenges.
Academia Letters, Article 211. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL211.

2
 2. Problem based learning: When the learners are given problems, and encouraged to
process the language to solve the given problems either individually or in pairs/groups,
their enthusiasm to find solutions to the problems will be higher. Such acts encour-
age their lateral thinking ability as they brainstorm different plausible solutions to the
problems and choose one best of all.

3. Logical arguments (critical reading): Constructing arguments and countering others’

arguments, exploring the norms or reasons to understand the hidden logic will be inter-
esting tasks for the learners.

4. Information transfer: Learning tasksenable the learners transfer a verbal text into a
non-verbal one (graphic representation of the text). Such as an act has been proved to
increase language learning and clarity in thought. The process also enables the transfer
of skills from one context of learning to the other.

5. Acceptance of different perspectives: Exposing the learners to various cultures (through

different texts) and seeking responses increases tolerance to others ideas, expands their
realm of thinking and enhances their observation skills. The result of the exposure to
different perspectives develop humility in the learners as they understand the vastness
and variety in the world they live in, in addition to being fair-minded in thinking and
being empathetic to others.

6. Classics and Mythologies: Use of classics or mythologies gives scope for discussions
regarding the values and ethics in relation to the past culture of a society. The belief
system along with the concepts and language used, act as a scaffolding to critically
think and explore, compare and contrast, and solve problems that help relive the strong
social bond that was prevalent in the society. Imperio et.al (2020) in their empirical
study establish the importance of socio- cultural pedagogical perspectives which can
be achieved by suing mythological and classical texts.

It is evident that the tasks discussed here are neither new or nor different. What is in-
teresting about them is the way they are exploited to achieve the designed ends. The careful
execution of the tasks with a stated orientation will ensure learners’ transformation into crit-
ical thinkers. Further these tasks are generated and completed by the learners ensuring their
active participation in the learning. Language, when learnt as individual skills and elements
gives lesser scope to use it in different contexts than when it is learnt for communication pur-
pose. For example, the learner once learns the context and application of a grammar rule, set
of vocabulary, or pronunciation will be able to apply that new learning contexts as s/he will

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Suvarna Lakshmi G, suvarna1974@gmail.com

Citation: G, S.L. (2021). Developing Critical Thinking Skills: A Panacea for ESL Learning Challenges.
Academia Letters, Article 211. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL211.

3
be able to understand the logic behind the rule and its application, thereby, becoming a better
learner and user of the target language. This also develops intellectual traits and standards
(Paul and Elder, 2012) required of a critical thinker contributing to a harmonious society.
The best outcome of this exercise is that all critical thinkers also can have creativity and think
innovatively.
However, the critical thinking teachers have to be practising critical thinkers to be open
to different perspectives, culture-based thinking and to create a scaffolding for all learning.
Giving comprehensible input and i+1 challenge levels (Krashen, 1988) of the tasks for all
learners confirms achievement of the objectives of the course. Teacher being creative in gen-
erating variety of tasks is a prerequisite to critical thinking teaching classes. Thus, teaching
critical thinking is a panacea to all the language teaching-learning problems.

References
Imperio, A, Staarman, J.K, Basso, D (2020). Relevance of the socio-cultural perspective in
the discussion about critical thinking.– Journal of Theories and Research in Education 15,
(1).

Krashen, S. D. (1988). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Prentice-
Hall International.

Moseley, D. B. (2005). Frameworks for Thinking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Paul, R. a. (2017). A Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools (8 ed.).
Berkley: Foundation for Critical Thinking.

Suvarna, G. L. (2013). Developing Critical Thinking in ESL/EFL Learners. Germany.

Academia Letters, March 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Suvarna Lakshmi G, suvarna1974@gmail.com

Citation: G, S.L. (2021). Developing Critical Thinking Skills: A Panacea for ESL Learning Challenges.
Academia Letters, Article 211. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL211.