جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « questions » در نشریات گروه « ادبیات و زبان ها »

Many studies have advocated the importance of teaching critical thinking (CT) skills, and have also provided some suggestions for its effective pedagogy. However, there is a dearth of research examining the efficacy of such instruction. This quantitative(quasi-experimental) and qualitative study aimed to investigate the impact of explicit instruction of critical thinking (CT) on university students’ critical thinking skills measured through the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) used as both pre- and post-test. The participants comprised four groups of 15-16 students each. The groups received different CT treatments: Critical Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (group 1), 11 Questions (group 2), CL and CDA followed by Peer Evaluation (group 3), and a control group (group 4) that only read about CT without practicing it. After receiving instruction on CT, the three treatment groups (1-3) critically analyzed 33 texts over 11 sessions. The results of the study indicated that Group 3 (CT & CDA followed by PE) had the highest improvement in their WGCTA scores from pre-to post-test, followed by Groups 2 and 1, while the control group showed no significant gain. The findings imply that reflecting critically on language learning materials can reveal hidden cultural and ideological elements within the texts. This can significantly enhance learners' advanced thinking skills, as well as support them in resisting cultural imperialism.

beyond rote learning and to enhance their academic achievement, it is an under-researched construct in ELT contexts. Therefore, this study investigated whether explicit teaching of critical thinking through amalgamation of Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Linguistics (group 1), Asking 11 Right Questions (group 2), and amalgamation of Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Linguistics accompanied by Peer-evaluation (group 3) can improve Reading Comprehension abilities of university students in an EFL context.  In so doing, the study utilized a mixed methods design including quasi-experimental and narrative feedback; with 16 participants in groups 1 and 2 each, 15 participants in group 3 as experimental groups, and 15 participants in group 4 as control group. Reading comprehension and critical thinking pretests were employed to homogenize groups at the beginning of the study; then every session 3 provocative texts were applied for critical analysis based on the treatments students received within five sessions. The reading comprehension post-test results indicated that explicit teaching of critical thinking through Asking 11 Right Questions had the highest and most significant influence on reading comprehension ability followed by two other experimental groups with control group representing no significant gain. The findings imply that reflecting critically on learning materials can illuminate hidden cultural and ideological aspects of the texts which consequently helps learners to better understand the text, and to defend against cultural invasion.

The language used by women and men differ in all speech communities. In order to examine some of these variations, the present study aimed to investigate the differences in an informal written discourse. For this purpose, a comparison between men’s and women’s informal language was made regarding length of utterances, questions, intensifiers, and hedges. Results revealed that men employed higher length of utterance and slightly more hedges than women. On the other hand, women tended to ask more questions and used more intensifiers than men. The findings may pave the way to better understand the world of communication.