Critical Thinking Tasks Summary

4.3. Numrich’s Sequence of Critical Thinking Tasks

Most EFL teachers might feel confused, puzzled, and lost when trying to decide what critical thinking tasks to apply, in what order to use them, or how to integrate them in their EFL contexts. The reason for that might be the lack of manuals and books, which could help language teachers to implement critical thinking tasks and activities in their classrooms as well as guide them through the process. Nevertheless, there exist some frameworks designed by teachers interested in critical thinking. One of such frameworks is Numrich’s sequence of critical thinking tasks (see Table 2) developed by Carol Numrich – a senior lecturer at Columbia University. Such a framework is one of the possible options

In understanding and organizing learners should be able to order or classify the information, contrast and compare, pay attention to relevant details, explain cause and effect, as well as summarize. This is an important step where learners explore the text and its details to be able to understand it and manage it. The language focus may lie on ordinal numbers, for example, or learners ability to retell a story in the past or present using sequence words or descriptive adjectives, as well as give reasons with because or provide examples using reported speech (Beaumont 2010). In interpreting, on the other hand, learners can finally examine the text deeper, make inferences or hypothesize the reasons of the events and interpret meanings, however still relying on the information provided in the

The sequence of tasks is not firmly fixed and can be altered according to the teachers’ aims and the students’ needs. The tasks can be blended or substituted by other tasks which are more concerned with language development, or another way around when teachers can add something from critical thinking to their ordinary tasks. However, what is more important, is that critical thinking can and should be taught in the EFL learning as it encourages language learners to become “active thinkers as well as active users of English” (Beaumont 2010: 428). Luckily, more and more critical thinking activities are being designed and shared by teachers from all over the world that prove that critical thinking helps learners advance their language proficiency and develop their critical thinking skills simultaneously, as well as let other teachers utilize and adapt these activities in their language