Exploring classroom discussion as a pedagogical tool to foster EFL secondary school pupils' critical thinking skills

Abstract

Nowadays, teaching foreign languages is very important, especially when it comes to the teaching of English in Algerian secondary schools. This study aims to evaluate the use of classroom discussions as a way to improve critical thinking skills among secondary school pupils as instructed by textbooks and practiced by the teachers in the classroom. This study follows a descriptive evaluative research design, which focuses on both quantitative and qualitative methods. The data were collected through two main tools: a questionnaire and a textbook evaluation checklist; the questionnaire was administered face to face and online to thirty (N=30) respondents, who were Algerian secondary school English teachers. The textbook evaluation checklist was used to collect the needed data from the three secondary school level textbooks in regard to the use of classroom discussions as a way to improve critical thinking skills. The results of the study indicated that the textbooks of the three levels guided teachers’ use of classroom discussions to develop critical thinking in pupils. However, the teachers have demonstrated, through the questionnaire that they do not follow the textbook activities, which is why the learners have a low critical thinking level according to them. The study informed about the different challenges that impede the teachers from practicing the classroom discussion as prescribed in the textbooks. This study entails some recommendations with the objective of improving the teaching quality of EFL education in Algerian secondary schools.