Abstract
Nurturing critical thinking (CT) has been acknowledged as a core objective of tertiary education, and drawn attention from academia of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in China. The thrust of the present study was to determine the association between CT and EFL argumentative writing among Chinese undergraduates. To this end, 110 English majors across three grades at two universities were conveniently selected and given the critical thinking skills (CTS) test and EFL argumentative writing test. The results of this study indicated that undergraduate English majors in China did not possess strong CTS. Though their CTS was not found to be significantly correlated with EFL argumentative writing performance, textual analysis of typical essays showed that strong-CTS learners outperformed weak-CTS ones in relevance, clarity, logicality, profundity and flexibility of argumentative writing. The obtained results suggest a need to integrate CT into EFL writing instruction.
Highlights
As societies become more information rich and technologically complex, the global job-market sets a higher demand for educational institutions and calls for a shift from disseminating knowledge to developing transferable skills pivotal to competitiveness and employability of graduates
Without a solid system of English knowledge established through systematic disciplinary training, it is impossible for English majors to activate systematicity of knowledge they have stored in Chinese to think critically and fully express in English (Qu, 2015)
This study assessed the association between critical thinking skills (CTS) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) argumentative writing of undergraduate English majors in China
Summary
As societies become more information rich and technologically complex, the global job-market sets a higher demand for educational institutions and calls for a shift from disseminating knowledge to developing transferable skills pivotal to competitiveness and employability of graduates. Among these transferable skills is critical thinking (hereafter CT) (Stephenson & Sadler-McKnight, 2016). Cultivation of CT has since been considered as one of the core objectives of tertiary education, and has grabbed attention from the Chinese academia of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
