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Description:

Critical thinking, an essential element across academic fields, has been at the heart of education for decades. While research on language education and critical thinking remains somewhat timid, it continues to gain ground among academic communities.  Available studies strongly suggest that pedagogical practices that wed world language teaching and critical thinking can facilitate language acquisition and enhance general proficiency. Despite this progress in the research field, there is nonetheless a general reluctance to integrate critical thinking in language teaching practices (Li, 2011; Pica, 2000) because, arguably, its integration presents more challenges for language educators than for teachers in other fields (Lin, Preston, Kharrufa, & Kong, 2016). However, while this statement may be true for teachers of major languages, teachers of the so-called less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) might be more inclined to take on these challenges. As decision-makers of their courses, teachers of LCTLs have opportunities to create innovative practices by engaging in three types of decisions: educational outcomes (what learners can do), content (what should be/is taught), and manner (how the goals of teaching language are achieved).

While recognizing the many challenges – including historical marginalization and inadequate institutional support – in this presentation I aim to shed light on the importance of integrating critical thinking in the language teaching and to explore models and ways of designing materials that can facilitate the integration of critical thinking in the African language classroom. While examples are provided from African languages classrooms, the principles and ideas are applicable to all languages.

Nov
4

Critical Thinking in World Language Teaching

Mariame Sy (African Language Program Director), Columbia University

webinar

Time
4:30 pm ET 5:30 pm ET
Audience
Open to all language educators
Applicable Language
All Languages
Access URL
https://lrc.cornell.edu/speaker-series
Access Instructions
Instructions
Zoom link posted on website
Extra Materials
Sponsor
Cornell University Language Resource Center
Series
Related Topics

Published October 4, 2021 by Angelika Kraemer • Updated October 4, 2021