Critical Thinking Skills in English Language and Literature

Abstract

Critical thinking may play a vital role in enhancing linguistic skills and in interactive approaches. The act of asking questions is central to critical thinking. When analysing an academic text, one should always ask oneself what the work is attempting to prove, how it is attempting to prove it, and why it is attempting to prove it. One must seek to identify the premise on which the author's logic is based in each of these considerations. The study shows that the way the experimental group was taught was effective in helping them think critically about books. The students started to move from asking what the book says to asking what it means, why the writer wrote it that way, whether they agree with it and how it is related to life. However, the study also shows that critical thinking is complex and cannot be fully developed by understanding the main ideas. The students need to keep practising how to argue based on evidence, read and analyse the tools the writer used, compare different understandings and explain why they think what they do.