Fostering Critical Thinking Skills and Effective Communication Methods in EFL Classroom

Abstract

The demand for using the English language as a means of communication has increased substantially around the world because of its status as the language of globalization, international communication, trade, media, and specially in education but teaching language alone is not enough, for that reason the importance of developing critical thinking skills and communicative competence has been extensively discussed in foreign language. The Ministry of Education has considered this demand and taken significant steps to reform the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Algeria. In which the aims of and documentation for the TEFL curriculum have been modified to second generation to focus on the four basic language skills and to promote students’ communicative competence and develop their critical thinking skills . However, despite all these efforts, there has been little progress in the area of TEFL in Middle schools .The current study investigates the cognitive levels of questions the teacher asked based on Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956), and how learners responded to teacher’s questions in language classrooms in Algerian middle school EFL context to check their critical thinking enhancement at Mekkaoui Ali Middle School and to examine teachers’ perceptions of CLT approach and its application in their classes.