EXPLORING THE ROLES OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TEACHING IN THE PROCESS OF EFL LEARNINGIN BENINESE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

For EFL students to become responsible and independent learners, the ability to think critically and analytically is a lifelong skill. It is common to find students having a lot of problems of writing a coherent and logical dissertation and to defend their own ideas about a given topic because they lack critical thinking skills. This study has been designed to contribute effectively to the teaching of critical thinking in EFL classes. To this end, it attempts to examine the perceptions and attitudes of Beninese EFL teachers of the Roles of critical thinking teaching in EFL classes so as to find out the effective ways and means to teach it. Quantitative and descriptive research methods have been used to conduct and collect data for this research work. A questionnaire is designed and sent to a total of 50 randomly-selected secondary school EFL teachers including 35 males and 15 females. Moreover, 10 EFL teachers have participated to an interview and 4 EFL classes have been observed. The analysis of the data reveals that Beninese EFL secondary school teachers have positive perceptions and attitudes towards the teaching of critically thinking. In addition, they believe that critical thinking teaching allows EFLlearners to communicate effectively. It also helps EFL learners to develop speaking fluency and accuracy. This study recommends EFL teachers to give students opportunities to work in pairs or in group during classroom activities instead of spoon-feeding them. EFL teachers should be trained about how to motivate learners to develop critical thinking skills