A Genres Approach to Foundation Critical Thinking Lawrie Hunter
Kochi University of Technology
lawrie_hunter at kochi-tech.ac.jp
http://www.info.kochi-tech.ac.jp/lawrie/
In Japanese education, and particularly English as a second language education, debate and critical thinking have attracted considerable attention both within the education system and in the media. Little has been written, however, about the foundation language skills and knowledge required for success in critical thinking or debate.
Greene and Hunter's (2002) Critical Thinking addresses the issue of foundation skills directly, being a textbook which provides a reasonably complete coverage of the language patterns required. The content of the book is structured to follow the text types (or genres) of systemic functional linguistics, and thus to assure completeness in terms of what Mohan (1986) calls 'language structures.'
This paper is an introduction to the curriculum area of critical thinking, and to the genres approach to the structuring of language teaching/learning material.
I Critical thinking as a curriculum area
In the past few years, the term 'critical thinking' has been everywhere in the media, and in educational pronouncements. No standard meaning of the term has been set, however. There are two very different definitions in circulation at the present time, and these are dealt with in subsections 1.1 and 1.2.
1.1 Issues-based, adversarial critical thinking (including debate)
Critical thinking is often used to refer to an adversarial, pro and con approach to studying controversial current events issues such as nuclear weapons, recyclable/reusable as alternatives to disposable goods, or the use of gasoline powered vehicles. This is primarily an American curriculum approach, and is well documented (see Web resources: Issues based critical thinking).
1.2 de Bono type thinking
Edward de Bono, of the University of Malta, has been a leading authority on the teaching of thinking skills for more than 25 years. He coined the term 'lateral thinking' and has written more than 40 books about lateral thinking. Dr. de Bono rejects the idea that thinking skill is innate, and has created a large number of materials for the development of thinking skill, most notably 'de Bono's Thinking Course,' which is taught in many countries around the world.
1.3 Critical thinking = logic
An obvious way to teach thinking is to teach western logic. Certainly the rules and structure of logic are part of our thinking about issues. However, just as the teaching of algebra does not always lead to good mathematical thinking skill, mastery of logic does not lead directly to clear thinking about practical issues and questions. Toulmin, in The Uses of Argument (1958), presents a very strong case for structuring argument around the rules of jurisprudence rather than around the rules of logic. He says, "The rules of logic apply to men and their arguments...as standards of achievement...by which...arguments can be judged. A sound argument...is one which will stand up to criticism." (Toulmin, 1958, p. 8).
1.4 Critical thinking as careful reading/listening and articulate speaking /writing
Many elementary and secondary language curriculum materials developed decades ago, particularly those used in elementary schools in Canada and the United States, e.g. Barnes et al (1977), used the term 'critical thinking' to refer to the thinking skills (and related language skills) which provide a foundation for the study of science, logic and philosophy. At the introductory level, these skills include simple forms of
1. describing
2. comparing
3. classifying
4. arranging in sequence
5. identifying cause-effect relations
6. making and justifying inferences
7. evaluating alternatives
8. weighing pros and cons of simple questions.
The final element in this list, weighing pros and cons, constitutes the entry level skill for issue based critical thinking as described in 1.1.
II Critical thinking as an EFL content area
Much of the recent flurry of activity in critical thinking EFL materials development and curriculum design has centered around the issues based definition of 'critical thinking' particularly when there has been much attention drawn to the teaching of debate. This has been the case in Japan: debate has been a popular new addition to university English programs (despite the fact that debate in Japanese is seldom done) and even some high schools have debate programs.
The quality of these hastily prepared teaching materials for debate and issues based critical thinking has been disappointing in many cases for the simple reason that the students do not have a full command of the basic discourse patterns which are the foundation of issues based critical thinking. This situation calls for explicit, extensive instruction in those foundation discourse patterns and their use.
III Systemic functional linguistics' text types (genres)
When a curriculum designer sets out to teach the foundation discourse patterns of critical thinking, the first thing the designer should look for is some overall structure of the discourse elements to be taught/learned. The list of skills in section 1.1 is almost perfectly matched by the knowledge structures identified by Mohan (1986), which are derived from the text types which form the range of discourse patterns delineated by systemic functional linguistics (SFL), as set out by such practical theorists as Halliday (1985), Butt et al (2000), and Berry (1975), and Christie (19 ). Systemic functional linguistics proposes a structuring of language based on how the language is used, depending on situation and purpose; this is very different from grammar based bodies of linguistic theory. SFL has been adopted in almost every part of the Australian school system as the primary tool for English curriculum design.
IV Genre-based curriculum design at Kochi University of Technology
Professors Lawrie Hunter and David Greene of Kochi University of Technology (KUT) have taken up the model of Mohan (1986) and the text typology of Butt et al (2000) and used them as the structuring concept of the curriculum structure of 3 of KUT's 4 foundation English courses:
Introductory Technical English (vocabulary and presentation)
Basic Technical Writing (a CALL course)
Critical Thinking (a writing and presentation course).
This common structure has the obvious advantage of giving the learners a practical, functional set of skills for English usage.
The design of Critical Thinking by Greene & Hunter (2002) is a good example of the application of genres to curriculum (and materials) design. The six units of the book are Description/classification, Comparison, Sequence, Inference, Cause and effect, and Pro and Con.
V Learning process as an element of curriculum design
Each of the 6 chapters in this book follows the same teaching/learning pattern:
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(a) INPUT: the learners are exposed to the target vocabulary and phrases required for expression of the ideas which are basic to the genre in the chapter. For input, the learners listen to explanations of the genre by the teacher, practice speaking and listening to sentences from the genre, and read various explanations of the genres language and language structure. (b) USAGE PRACTICE: in each chapter there are a succession of activities and tasks which allow the learner to practice using the language required for the genre. It is important to emphasize to the learners that the activities and exercises are practice to support the final large task in the chapter. The activities and tasks may be performed in several different modes: for example, as in-class activities (individual or group), as written homework. This flexibility is important for the teacher, allowing for a variety of timings and paces. (c) AUTHENTIC TASK: the tasks at the end of the chapter in particular are non-linguistic tasks, based in the real world. In some chapters the learners are asked to arrange information in certain structures; in other chapters the learners are asked to solve real-world type problems. These tasks may be done individually or in groups of 2, 3 or 4 learners. (d) EXPRESSION: the language aspect of the authentic tasks lies in the delivery of the product of the task. Depending on the size of the class, the teacher may have the students give oral presentations (in class or in private), submit written reports, or report in another media such as video or PowerPoint. |
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VI Variation of processing in task design
Task processing should be carefully designed and varied. It is important to assess one's own teaching in terms of what input the student receives in tasks, and what output is demanded for those tasks.
We can say that an educational task is composed of input, processing, and output by the learner. In a simplistic way, we can identify these types of tasks:
