Critical Thinking as a Nourishing Interface to EFL Context in Higher Education

As one of the renowned learning and innovation skills of 21st century, critical thinking (hereafter CT) has been studied in various fields of education. Contrary to expectations, the emphasis on the mutual link between CT and language learning in tertiary education is newly flourishing. That being the case, the awareness of English as a Foreign Language (hereafter EFL) learners regarding this close connection and how it affects their perceived language learning potential should be inquired and increased. Drawing on such need, this paper reports on the investigation of an action research implementation and its effects on the perceptions of EFL learners over a ten week period of CT integrated practice. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data collected through two CT tasks, open-ended questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews based on learners’ logs revealed an unequivocal influence on the perspectives of EFL learners towards CT and language learning. The implementation also helped the learners improve their thinking and language skills.


CT as a Concept
The integration of hi-tech devices into our daily lives has a short but very rapidly expanding history.This has pushed humanity to develop sophisticated skills to deal with the information boost gaining momentum with the invention of a new communication tool each day.Influenced by this fact, today's learners should not be ignorant but be aware that learning to think critically is now inescapably on a par with many other learning skills to survive in a global village (Trilling & Fadel, 2009).
Besides, many other capabilities including the ability to communicate in at least a commonly spoken foreign language, thinking flexibly and cooperating with others are the sine qua non of the new era.Added to the qualities above, drawing sound conclusions out of situations to make informed decisions -another component of CT -lead to a more innovative attitude in the 21st century work place and society (Trilling & Fadel, 2009;Kivunja, 2014).That is why enhancing the development of graduates with CT skills is vital in universities (Stupple et al., 2017).
Despite the commonly acknowledged importance of CT in the academia, unfortunately majority of the students are deprived of a sound explanation or they are filled with misconceptions regarding what CT really entails (Stupple et al., 2017).As a matter of fact, it is no surprise they cannot show the related traits in most of the academic courses.Thus, clarifying and deepening the learners' perceptions on what CT encompasses is a prerequisite before asking them to reveal the characteristics of a critical thinker.
• gathers and assesses relevant information, and effectively interprets it; • comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; • thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and • communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems (p.4).
In addition to these, another framework provided by Ennis (2011) suggesting being mindful of others' perspectives and alternatives in solving a problem or a controversial issue among the featured qualities of a critical thinker was a complementary reference point in addressing CT as a concept in the study.

CT in Turkish Language Education System
In Turkey, the New English Language Curriculum proposed by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) explicitly refers to the development and demonstration of CT skills in language classes (MoNE, 2013).However, when the latest results of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are taken into consideration, the decline in such skills as problem solving, creative and critical thinking are obviously acknowledged on the part of Turkish students (OECD, 2016).The aforementioned deterioration in higher order thinking skills of Turkish learners was also reported by a nationwide observational study on the implementation of higher order thinking skills in English teaching classes of Turkey (British Council, 2015).
Apparently, CT has not received the attention it deserved in primary, secondary and higher education in Turkey so far (Doğanay et al., 2007;Doğanay & Ünal, 2006).This in turn has led to the bulk of memorization-addicted generations who are deprived of an ability to make meaning out of what they learn at school.Such a superficial attitude towards learning is also existent in the foreign language teaching and learning case (Petek & Bedir, 2015).Oftentimes, students suffer from not being able to communicate in English, which is the commonly taught foreign language in Turkey despite many years of exposure to English classes.
Hence, if learners are given a chance to develop self-awareness regarding their assumptions, prejudices and values by means of language classes, they can not only gain a new point of view but also benefit from the use of CT to promote their language skills (Üstünlüoğlu, 2004).After all, language classrooms are among the best places to activate ideas, question the culture-bound habits and acquire new perspectives due to an array of materials and methods employed (Kabilan, 2000).Thus the value of CT in the foreign language classrooms and how they mutually improve each other should be accentuated through more practice oriented research.

Research Rationale
A multitude of studies have been conducted on the CT levels or tendencies of learners at the national and international arena in different fields of education (e.g.Kökdemir, 2003;Fidancı et al., 2012;Alagözlü, 2007;Doğanay et al., 2007;Sağlam & Büyükuysal, 2013;Rusdi & Umar, 2015;Marin & Halpern, 2011;Zetriuslita et al., 2016).The commonly addressed finding was that learners had either moderate or low levels of CT.This finding reveals the scarcity of attempts to ameliorate learners' CT development.It is now widely accepted that thinking critically has a strong potential to enhance the academic success of a learner subjectwise if given appropriate training (Renaud and Murray, 2008).On the other hand the research on the use of CT in EFL classes in higher education are scarce (For example; Meiramova, 2017;Pineda, 2004;Klimoviene et al., 2006;Quintero, 2012).Since improvement of CT skills is expected to have a positive influence on the foreign language skills of learners (Stupple et al., 2017), the cultivation of awareness on the constructive relationship between CT and language learning is also an issue to be stressed out.Although the definitions are abundant, learners are deprived of a thorough explanation as regards the components of CT and this leads to an inability to develop such a skill when coupled with system-wide obstacles in education (Petek & Bedir, 2015;Stupple et al., 2017).Such deprivation can partially be attributed to the lack of explicit CT-oriented instruction given to the individuals (Doğanay & Ünal, 2006;Marin & Halpern, 2011).
Admittedly, the need to embed CT as a higher order thinking skill into the teaching curriculum is increasing day by day (Ennis, 2013).Thus, it is crucial that students first develop a broad-enough notion of CT and experience its supportive role in advancing their language skills.At that point, the current study aimed to contribute to the literature by researching the effects of nurturing a group of tertiary level EFL learners' perceptions on the adjuvant role of CT in promoting foreign language learning.Such an attempt encompassed an explicit and systematic classroom-friendly training approach.Therefore, the study was shaped around four main research questions: 1) What are tertiary-level Turkish EFL learners' perceptions regarding CT before a CT integrated English instruction?
2) What are tertiary-level Turkish EFL learners' perceptions regarding the relationship between CT and language learning before a CT integrated English instruction?
3) Do tertiary-level Turkish EFL learners' perceptions on CT improve through a CT integrated English instruction?
4) Do tertiary-level Turkish EFL learners' perceptions on the relationship between CT and language learning improve through a CT integrated English instruction?

Context and Participants
Prior to the study, the researcher had been observing a lack of enthusiasm in students in terms of answering the questions or joining the activities that call for deeper thinking.On the other hand, when asked comprehension level wh-or yes/no questions, they jumped right into the answer without much consideration.When queried about the reason of such behavior, they generally attributed this to their low level of English which in fact was not the case since they were at level B1 according to Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages (CoE, 2001) at the time.Another observation was that students were either impatient with each other's ideas when a discussion topic emerged or they complained about not being able to think of alternative answers on a question.
Commonly mentioned in the literature, these handicaps led the researcher to the conclusion that first these attitudes should be changed via increasing awareness on the significance of CT for language learning and the vice versa.
The study was conducted at the School of Foreign Languages (SOFL) of Cukurova University in Turkey.The participants were a group of university students from various engineering departments, but they were primarily enrolled in the SOFL to learn English prior to their 4-year undergraduate education.The programme aimed to equip the students with both academic and general English communication skills so that they could survive in their English-medium departments later on.Thus, every class had at least two teachers one of which taught the course book, whereas the other one focused on the development of academic skills through reading, writing, listening, and speaking practice.The academic year, which lasted for eight months, was divided into four two-month blocks with three different levels (L) from L1 to L3 taking CEFR as the reference point.In this way, an L1 students' level of proficiency corresponded to A1 in CEFR after taking a placement exam at the beginning of the year.At the end of a full year receiving only English language instruction, the students were supposed to pass an integrated proficiency exam where they needed to prove their proficiency at a minimum level of B2.In the exam, they were required to express not only sufficient grammar and vocabulary knowledge but also the ability to interpret various reading and listening texts, and write on issues that call for higher order thinking.
The researcher collaborated with a group of 20 L1 class students (11 male, 9 female) whose ages ranged from 18 to 20 years old.Their level of English proficiency was around B1 at the time of the study given that they started to take the 10 week CT integrated language training in the third block.The participants were selected through convenience sampling, as the researcher was also the academic skills teacher of the class during the study.

Data Collection
To ensure the validity and the reliability of the study, multiple data collection tools were used for the study.These were composed of pre and post-questionnaires, two CT tasks, and semi-structured interviews based on learner logs.

Implementation
In search of an answer for the research questions, the researcher first asked the students to fill in an open-ended questionnaire made up of four questions and do two CT tasks, which had been piloted prior to the study.After analyzing the results, she compiled a series of collaborative critical thinking techniques and designed them according to the context-specific needs of the students (See Table 1).As Table 1 shows, after sharing the preliminary results with the students, the implementation of the modules started.In Module 1&2, the researcher encouraged a discussion atmosphere emanating from the learners' answers to the pre-questionnaire with an aim to increase their self-awareness on CT as a term.Subsequent to that, she had an introductory class on CT and critical reading via a ppt presentation.The session proceeded in a question/answer format.In Module 3, the learners were first given a short reading passage suited to their levels of English and asked to answer some questions that call for critical reading.After discussing the responses as a whole class, they were instructed to get into groups of four through a mini-grouping activity and assigned roles (leader, reporter, note-taker, and time keeper).Once the researcher clarified the mission of each role, she provided a scenario over which the groups were supposed to discuss and fill in an outline.At the end of the given time, the reporters of the groups were invited to announce the ideas of the group.Module 4 was shaped around the Plus-Minus-Interesting (PMI) technique developed by de Bono (1985a).After a short warm-up with visuals and questions, the researcher started a discussion on a controversial issue (e.g.Turkish government wants to make English the official second language of Turkey.What would be the plus, minus and interesting points of such a decision?).The learners were expected to fill in a chart in groups of three and then share their opinions with the class.Another technique reported to increase CT -the SEE-I -was adopted in Module 5.In SEE-I postulated by Nosich (2009) learners are given a concept in groups.Then they are supposed to State the concept in their own words, Elaborate on it to clarify the concept, Exemplify it through a daily life example, and finally illustrate it via an analogy, metaphor or visuals.In the current study, the researcher designed this module in a contest format.Each time she presented the groups with a word in English (e.g.freedom, friend etc.), she kept the time limited so that there was a winner group at the end.She presented 10 random words in total.The trick was to ask every group to read their findings and they would get a point according to a flexible democratic voting criterion.In Module 6, a collaborative thinking technique Think-Pair-Share (TPS) first proposed by Lyman (1981) was used.Learners were again given a scenario on a daily life problem to be solved.Then they were asked to think on it individually and with their pairs by filling in a chart.The last two modules (Module 7a & 7b) were devoted to de Bono's (1985b) famous six thinking hats technique.In module 7a, the learners were first asked to watch the video-clip of a song about poverty, and then do a fill-in the blanks activity about the lyrics as a warm-up.Later on, they were required to pick up a hat and think according to the instructions given on behalf of that specific color of the hat (e.g.The green hat wants you to think of the possible solutions to the problem of poverty in your country).Once they came up with enough ideas, the learners got into groups of six and pronounced their opinions depending on the hat they were wearing.The researcher repeated this technique in Module 7b with another scenario on purpose to let the students experience the viewpoint of a different color of hat.In the week before the post data collection stage, there was a wrap-up session on the techniques covered so far and a whole class reflection activity.The final week was allotted to the post-data collection.
At least four class hours were devoted to each module because the techniques had a dual mission to stimulate both critical thinking and language learning skills of the students since all the materials and the way of communication was in English during the implementation.Meanwhile, the students were completing learner logs right after each module where they reflected on what they liked, disliked about the lesson and what learning perspective they acquired through that specific lesson.
At the post-stage, the students first completed the CT tasks again, hence filled in an open-ended post-questionnaire which was composed of five questions.. Based on the results, the researcher tried to gain more insight by conducting other mean better verb the proofre

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The first s were prese any other thinking at Figure 1   In support of the fourth interview question, the striking extract from participant N demonstrated that this implementation had a positive influence on some specific language skills: N: I perceived CT as a biased, negative thinking style, but later on I learnt that CT is more about gathering information before decision making.I used to focus on one perspective, but now I try to see an event from different perspectives.I take my mother's ideas into consideration more.I also began to understand in English more easily.I did a lot of speaking and listening practice.
Irrespective of the aforementioned findings above, the participants also reported increased awareness regarding themselves and the others coupled with enlarged vision on various topics which altogether contributed to their learning of English as given in the extracts below: E: I did not want to hear the opposing views before, but now I look more openly.It kept me away from one-sided thinking.I did not only improve my English but also thought about various topics.
D: I realized that I may be prejudiced about people or things sometimes, but I started to look at things more objectively.
O: I think more deeply now.I empathize with others more and have realized the importance of such a skill because we lack this skill as a society.
G: I realized that I cannot produce many ideas when I think alone.During these activities, listening to my friends' ideas rang a bell in my mind and helped me to come up with more ideas.
T: I think of the topics we discussed in the class when I face a problematic situation or person in my daily life.I try to see the other sides.My awareness increased.I also started learning new words in English by associating them with the techniques we learnt.
In conclusion, the extracts implied a progressive change in the participants' attitudes towards daily life events and people around them throughout the implementation.

Conclusion and Implications
This study attempted to highlight the change in perceptions of EFL learners as regards the reciprocal relationship between CT and language learning through a CT integrated English instruction implementation.During the implementation, the lesson plans were specifically designed for improving learners' CT awareness by using English as a means of communication.Besides, learners' logs and interviews were beneficial to gather data as suggested by Alnofaie (2013).The findings indicated two main positive outcomes: 1.The learners' vision of CT in relation to language learning was gradually enlarged 2.Their reported language skills improved to a great extent due to multifaceted thinking on the issues in a foreign language.The results were in line with the reported findings of previous studies (Quintero, 2012;Klimoviene et al., 2006;Pineda, 2004;Meiramova, 2017) which displayed the constructive nature of CT in a foreign language classroom.Adding to this, the implementation helped the development of all language skills as it was conducted with a wholistic approach rather than adhering to only one or two language skills (Alnofaie, 2013).Besides, there was a developmental change in their 21 st century life skills such as responsibility taking, tendency to cooperate with others, advanced problem solving, increase in group consciousness without falling prey to sociocentrism, and patience with the opposing views (Kivunja, 2014;Yemenici, 2016).
It can be said that helping students gain the ability to think critically at various levels of education is among the significant duties of every education system (Doğanay et al., 2007).It is also much better when the latter level is designed to support the previous one in terms of fostering students' higher order thinking in an egalitarian way.Therefore, being familiar with what CT entails, and how to do it are some of the prerequisites to developing CT skills (Petek & Bedir, 2015).
The findings of the study offer precious implications for EFL teaching/learning contexts as language classrooms are the ultimate sources to broaden the learners' visions in terms of CT skills (Kabilan, 2000): • First of all, the results of the study partly indicate that Turkish education system does not sufficiently underline the importance of CT (Alagözlü, 2007) which may stimulate the emergence of more CT integration attempts at the national level.This study can also be taken as a contribution to the teaching of CT in EFL contexts world-wide by offering the promising outcome of a fruitful implementation process.

•
Based on the reported benefits during and after the implementation, the study recommends incorporating more CT oriented practices into the EFL classrooms no matter what proficiency level the students are.Despite the claim in literature that students' foreign language proficiency can limit their CT ability (Manalo & Sheppard, 2016), this study obviously revealed that foreign language classrooms can be among the best facilitators to CT when students view it as a means for conveying their thoughts on particular subjects rather than a grammatical entity.In a similar vein, thinking critically on all the tasks which were given in English during the implementation led to a more authentic atmosphere and thus provided an aim for students to communicate with each other in the foreign language.This in turn made it possible to expand their vocabulary knowledge along with other communication skills.
• Critical thinking is among the acclaimed objectives of National Education in Turkey; yet there is more to develop when the scarcity of classroom practices is taken into account (Atay, 2015).The role teachers play in developing such a complicated but rewarding skill is a directive one (Üstünlüoğlu, 2004) considering that bringing up critical thinkers is an effortful act rather than a self-generated one contrary to the mainstream thought (Paul and Elder, 2014).Thus, the study also brings the critical role of national and international language teacher educators to the fore who should allocate more space for such training initiatives in their agenda (Meiramova, 2017).This way, language teachers might be equipped with necessary knowledge, skills, and courage to infuse CT into their teaching syllabus • Allegedly, CT may seem an already implicitly given skill in the curricula of higher education.Nevertheless, focusing on it more intentionally in academic contexts can help students develop a better notion of how to be a critical thinker and the benefits of the construct (Stupple et al., 2017;Doğanay et al., 2007).As a consequence, be it embedded in the readily taught language courses or presented as a specifically designed course, the study highlights the vitality of emphasizing CT explicitly (Meiramova, 2017;Manalo & Sheppard, 2016;Marin & Halpern, 2011) at higher education curriculum more clearly.

•
The micro-level impact of the study also draws attention to the importance of embracing a culture of critical thinking (Alnofaie, 2013) at the institutional level in language education so that learners can transfer this skill into their academic development as well as language development more effectively.

Table 1 .
Implementation period