Exploring EFL Teachers' Facilitating Critical Thinking Skills in Teaching Writing to Low-Proficient Undergraduate Students in Bangladesh: A Mixed Method Approach

Abstract

Critical thinking (CT) is one of the crucial skills of the 21st century. Nevertheless, in the educational sector of Bangladesh, CT is still not appropriately taught and practiced to develop learners’ expertise. This study aimed to investigate how EFL teachers facilitate critical thinking (CT) skills of the undergraduate low-proficient learners and what obstacles they faced in promoting CT skills in writing classes in Bangladesh. It integrated both quantitative and qualitative data to achieve the research goals. To conduct this study, the researchers collected data from twelve teachers from six universities in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The results show that the common challenges teachers face while facilitating CT skills are- their lack of proper knowledge and training, inadequate focus on promoting CT skills in the existing educational curriculum, lack of motivation of both students and teachers, difficulty in transitioning from a ‘teacher-centric’ to a ‘student-centric’ classroom, inconvenient classroom environment, and more focus on securing good grades. Findings also show that teachers in tertiary-level education did not pay enough attention to enhance CT and problem-solving skills. However, there are possibilities to enhance teachers' abilities to improve the CT skills of low-proficient EFL learners. The research findings will help tertiary-level EFL teachers understand the current practice of facilitating CT skills in Bangladesh and devise appropriate strategies for better action.

Exploring Higher Secondary EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Critical Thinking and Its Development: A Critical Reflection

“…Mok (2009) revealed in a study that in Hong Kong teachers lacked knowledge of teaching methods and skills that could be used to develop students' CT skills in class. Ullah et al (2022) examined how EFL teachers support CT skills for undergraduate low-proficient learners in writing classes in Bangladesh. Their findings showed that tertiary-level educators did not give enough thought to improving CT and problem-solving abilities.…”

Exploring Nuanced Errors in Bangladeshi Tertiary EFL Students’ Writing Mechanics: A Pedagogical Implication

“…This study utilized 42 handwritten narrative essays as qualitative content data. These essays were collected as part of the principal author's PhD project on writing problems among tertiary EFL students in the Bangladeshi context where writing is taught focusing on segregated items (Ullah et al, 2022) but still errors are common to notice in those items. The essays were written by 42 EFL tertiary students between June 2022 and December 2022 and all wrote on the same topic: "A Memorable Day of Your University Life."…”

Exploring Academic Writing Proficiency of Tertiary EFL Learners of Bangladesh: A Pedagogical Implication

“…This oversimplified categorization prevents EFL students from developing as writers because they are not taught according to what they already know (Chu, 2012). As a result, students do not demonstrate the expected level of proficiency in writing tasks (Ullah, 2022;Mustaque, 2021). In order to aid in the development of students' writing skills, it is necessary to ascertain the level of competency of tertiary EFL learners in various writing components.…”