THE USE OF COGNITIVE STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP LEARNERS’ CRITICAL THINKING IN EFL

Аннотация

The paper discusses the results of a study which explored the use cognitive strategies to develop learners’ critical thinking in EFL. The data were collected from 25 students by means of problem-solving tasks and survey. The gathered data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results of the study demonstrated that, on the one hand, Some problem solving tasks were completed positively by the students and they participated very actively in such tasks. This shows how quickly critical thinking has developed in them, but there are still some students whose critical thinking is low. They could not be active in problem solving tasks and debates, and in addition, the survey conducted also revealed that critical thinking is very low in the students. Keywords: Critical thinking, cognitive strategies, EFL learners, problem- solving, surveys