Developing Critical Thinking Skills in a Second Language with Task Based Learning

This blog gives an account of a course I co-ordinated and taught recently in a high school in Japan which approached the challenges of English language skills and academic skills development. The course, which was taught to a group of 13 students, aimed to give students an opportunity to experience third level academia and help these students adjust to the longer class timetable, an increase in workload, and becoming more autonomous in their studies. With just two weeks to overcome these challenges, we set about co-ordinating and organising a course that merged task-based learning with developing critical thinking skills, and threaded language strategy skills and academic research skills to result in a final presentation project. This blog gives a short description of our approach and how using some basic educational tools helped us overcome some of the issues we were facing.

Language Proficiency

In Japan it is normal for students to learn English in school, yet not many people speak English there. In many schools English is taught by a Japanese teacher who is proficient in English, so no doubt, translation is a key component to learning the English language in school. The method of learning Kanji may also influence on how English linguistics is learnt. Over the last few years working in Japan, I have noticed that the Japanese know a lot of the English language. They know a lot of vocabulary and grammar, but they don't know how to use it. In other words, the grammar and vocabulary of the language are taught, but the basic skills of communication in the language are not developed thoroughly in the school system. However, things are starting to change, and more and more schools are starting to bring in communicative English language teachers (ALTs) to work with and co-teach with the Japanese teachers in the schools.

The lack of communicative skills was one of the first issues we faced when developing this course. One of our aims was to get the students discussing topics, and we faced this by noting down the language strategies necessary for discussions. For example, agreeing and disagreeing, asking critical questions, making suggestions and giving feedback.

To develop these skills in class, we followed a very simple communicative model. In each class the students were presented with the a language strategy through examples and model conversations, we then practiced these strategies through controlled drilling and repetition, and finally we gave the students a fluency activity to carry out and produce the strategies in a more natural way. We organised the language strategies into the curriculum in a way that allowed the students to build up the skills and recycle previous strategies covered in classes in each fluency activity. Many of the language strategies we focused on involved being critical. Therefore,  another challenge we faced was how to develop critical thinking, so students could develop their communication skills effectively without being hindered by lack of critical thinking abilities.

Critical Thinking Skills

The development of critical thinking skills was another issue we faced. Again many high schools in Japan lack in the development of these skills which is very evident when students start third level education. For many students in Japan, there is a very thin line between being critical and being disrespectful when challenging or asking of another, mainly teachers' and professors', opinions. In a society were respect is a key aspect in all areas of life, it is understandable that students do not want to cross this line and come across as being disrespectful. In order to approach this, we used Edward De Bono' Six Thinking Hats process. This allowed us to direct students to think a certain way at certain times, and because it was a set process, students crossed the line comfortably as part of the task they were assigned. Using De Bono's Six Thinking Hats had to be very well scaffolded by the teacher throughout the course. For example, after presenting the Six Thinking Hats on the first day, they were threaded into each language strategy lesson with questions to raise students awareness of how the language strategies reflected the thinking process of the Six Thinking Hats. We asked questions like, "When you make a suggestion, what thinking act are you using?", or "If I wanted to disagree with this opinion, what thinking hat would I have to use, and how could I express my disagreement?" Over time the students became a lot more comfortable using the Six Thinking Hats and less hesitant using the language strategies they were presented with in class. They could now see the relevance and connection of how both worked together. However, we didn't stop there with De Bono's Six Thinking Hats. As part of developing their research skills, students were assigned an article in English to read every night, and they were instructed to take notes on a worksheet. The worksheet was divided up into sections that reflected the thinking of the six hats. These worksheets and other research notes later came together in the form of group posters, and these posters set the foundation for the presentation project.

Academic Research Skills

The course was designed around a problem based topic. By choosing a problem, it allowed us to use the critical thinking skills to develop evaluations on possible solutions to these problems. On this particular course we looked at social problems Japan faced when hosting the Olympics. Each article assigned to the students to read for research was an issue around this topic. The students were encouraged to do their own research also, either in English or Japanese. We developed the students' evaluations skills by using the academic structure Situation - Problem - Response - Evaluation (S.P.R.E.). This was also used as the main structure for their presentation on the social problem they choose. Before choosing their problem, the students came together to share their opinions and responses. This was done in poster form: each group were given 2 problems, and had to create a visual way of showing these problems, and ideas of how respond to these problems. As students worked on the posters, we discussed both positive and negative evaluations of their responses. Students were encouraged to look at the negative evaluations even more, so they could be more critical of their ideas and could highlight this in their presentation work.

Presentations Skills

The course finished up with students doing group presentations. For all the students, it was their first time presenting in English so a lot of time was given to developing presentation skills. We focused on sub-skills, such as using visuals like graphs and charts (we did not allow powerpoint as we wanted the focus to be on the content rather than the visual), structuring the content of the presentation, writing a draft, and using cue cards for fluency. The presentation structure followed the SPRE layout, and the students were encouraged to give a positive and negative evaluation of their ideas. The presentations were a great success, and the students showed great autonomy developing their ideas and finding information to support their ideas. They also showed great confidence in their presenting which evidently came from the knowledge of the work they had done to create the presentation content.

Scaffolding

Overall the course was a great success. I had a great group of students to work with, and I have no doubt that these students will do very well in third level education. As a teacher, I recognised that the balance of scaffolding learning and controlling the work is very important in a task-based learning course. There is a sense of bargaining if something will work or not. Teacher support is essential in a task-based course, but allowing room for mistakes by students when doing these tasks is just as important. While all teachers will strive to achieve a good outcome at the end of a course, it is important to recognise that a bad outcome is just as much part of the learning for the student.

Learning from your mistakes can be just as effective as learning from doing something right. From a pedagogical perspective, task-based learning  can be, and should be, about getting it right and about getting it wrong. To end the course I did a reflection session with the students on what they had done during the course, and how it would help them in the future. It was during this reflection feedback session, that it became clear what students felt they did well, and what they felt they needed to improve. The reflection feedback session also gave students an opportunity to reflect on their peers, and highlight what they learned from each other. 

When I first approached this course with task-based learning in mind, I was told it wouldn't work. I was told the school had tried projects like this in the past, and they were not a success. There is a lot involved in task-based learning, and the simple attitude of "handing if over to the students" doesn't work. It is essential for teachers to monitor constantly, scaffold, and even get down on your hands and knees to stick pictures on a poster. For me, I found that engaging with the project rather than trying to control it is essential. Give your students room to develop, and you will be very surprised how much they can do in such a short amount of time.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and would be very happy to have your comments below.