Critical Languages and Critical Thinking: Reframing Academic Arabic Programs

Ryding focuses on the concept of critical thinking and its implications for foreign language study, which provides an opportunity to approach an old problem in a slightly different way. She argues for the need for attention to explicit grammar instruction within communicative teaching situations--no...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ryding, Karin Christina
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
College students
Critical thinking
Foreign language instruction
Foreign language learning
Grammar
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Ryding focuses on the concept of critical thinking and its implications for foreign language study, which provides an opportunity to approach an old problem in a slightly different way. She argues for the need for attention to explicit grammar instruction within communicative teaching situations--not simply because it ultimately enhances proficiency at advanced levels, but also because it underpins learners' cognitive development. One of the reasons the critical thinking paradigm is intriguing is that some students approach learning a foreign language with what they consider critical thinking skills, but which are not really critical thinking, but simply being (rather unthinkingly) critical; other students, along the same lines, constantly question and challenge the rationale behind foreign language lexical forms or grammatical structures rather than tuning in to a different channel and taking them in as part of a new knowledge base, a truly different cultural and cognitive world.