چکیده:
Despite the saliency of raising critical thinking not only in ELT but also in other aspects of life, there is still lack of studies in this regard that need to be filled. Previous studies dealt with Faiclough’s model not that of van Dijk, and besides, they weren’t concerned about CDA effects on different proficiency levels. The present study, however, examined the impact of critical discourse analysis (CDA) on EFL undergraduates’ critical thinking (CT) ability across different proficiency levels. To this end, 96 EFL undergraduates in three different proficiency levels of high, mid and low participated in this study to all of whom the “Watson and Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal” (WGCTA) was administered. They received treatment of van Dijk’s model practice over a period of an hour a week and for four weeks, once the model proved to be appropriate through expert judge. The results indicated that CDA has a positive influence on learners’ CT. Besides, the scores for the high group were significantly higher than that of low group, and the high group performed better than the mid-level group, but the difference was not significant for the mid and low proficiency level groups. The findings demonstrated that language proficiency has a positive mediating role in the extent to which a CDA model awareness can improve learners’ critical thinking ability.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The Impact of Practicing van Dijk’s Model of Critical Discourse Analysis on the Improvement of Iranian EFL Undergraduates’ Critical Thinking across Different Proficiency Levels 1Sahar Najarzadegan 2Azizollah Dabaghi* IJEAP- 1710-1110 Abstract 3Abbass Eslami-Rasekh Despite the saliency of raising critical thinking not only in ELT but also in other aspects of life, there is still lack of studies in this regard that need to be filled.
To this end, 96 EFL undergraduates in three different proficiency levels of high, mid and low participated in this study to all of whom the “Watson and Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal” (WGCTA) was administered.
Integrating CT into L2 Learning Generally speaking, the association of CT with students’ academic success and how critical literacy can work within classrooms of all age and ability levels is demonstrated by many researchers (Bean and Moni, 2003; Gruber & Boreen, 2003; Jewett and Smith, 2003; Johnson & Ciancio, 2003; Morrell, 2004; Phan, 2010;).
But the previously- mentioned researches were a comparison between a control and an experimental group; they didn’t consider examining the effect of CDA on nurturing learners’ critical thinking ability across different proficiency levels of low, mid and high among the undergraduates.
2- Does practicing van Dijk’s model in text analysis promote the critical thinking ability of high, mid, and low level undergraduates significantly?
According to literature, it is essential for teachers to teach students critically, involve them in class discussions, promote their abilit y of challenge, and let them argue and debate while learning (Beck, 2005; Cots ,2006 Michell, 2006; Pietrandrea, 2008; Rogers, Marshall, & Tyson, 2006; Singer & Shagoury, 2005).