Key Critical Thinking Skills For Advanced Learners: John Hughes

Key critical thinking skills
for advanced learners

John Hughes
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course
book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and
managed departments of Business English and
Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety
roles including part-time teaching, running online
training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology
at Oxford University in the summer. He has written
many books with National Geographic Learning
including Spotlight on First, Practical Grammar, Total
Business 2, Success with BEC Vantage, Aspire, and
the six-level general English course series called Life.
He lives near Oxford and writes the
blog www.elteachertrainer.com and is a contributor
to the National Geographic Learning In Focus Blog.
• Define critical thinking in the context of the ELT
classroom
• Contrast critical thinking at lower levels (A1 to B1)

and higher levels (B2 to C1)
• Develop key critical thinking skills for advanced

learners
Lower order thinking Higher order thinking
Basic comprehension Creative thinking
Critical thinking
Critical thinking
• Fill-the-blanks • Analyse a text • Give a

• True/false questions • Infer meaning presentation
• Matching activities • Discover the meaning • Write an essay
• Find the answer in a text • Evaluate an opinion • Make a video
Critical thinking
Critical thinking
Beginner to pre-intermediate Intermediate to Advanced
• Topics and contexts are more • Topics and contexts are more
concrete and known abstract and less known
• Lower % of CT tasks • Higher % of CT tasks
• Exercises tend to separate levels • Exercises tend to integrate levels
of thinking of thinking
• More dependent on the teacher • More dependent on the learner
Summarizing skills
“I need to report back on what
I’ve discovered.” Discussion skills
“I want to express my own
views.”
An advanced
Questioning skills
“What’s going on here?” learner
Research skills
“I want to find out more about this.”
Critical reflection skills

“Have I been successful?”
“What’s next?”
Questioning skills
“What’s going on here?”
Asking your own questions before reading (or listening)
What do I already know about this topic?
Who wrote the article? How will this affect their opinion?
What evidence does it include for the author’s argument?
What sources does the author provide?
Do I agree with the conclusion? Why? Why not?
Where can I find out more about this topic?

‘There are no universally agreed characteristics
of human beauty. It depends upon your culture.’
POLL
a) I’m not interested in this topic.
b) I agree. It’s true.
c) I disagree. It’s false.
d) I agree/disagree because …
e) I’m not sure. I need to think more about it. Who said this, for example?
f) I agree/disagree because .... However, I’d like more evidence to see if my
initial reaction is a reasonable one.
a) How can you be sure it is not of interest until you engage with the topic?
b) and c) You have an opinion, but what informed that opinion?
d) You have an opinion and you have reasons for it. But are you sure that your
reasons are not prejudiced in some way?
e) It’s encouraging that you want to reflect on this more deeply.
f) Great! You have reasons for your opinion and you want to test them to see if they
are well-founded.
Summarizing skills
I’ve discovered.”
People usually think that in order to be healthy, you need to eat
certain foods - a balance of fruit, meat, vegetables, bread etc.
But in fact this is not true. We need certain nutrients - fat,
carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and minerals - not certain foods.
There are many examples of people with very healthy diets who
do not think about eating a ‘balance’ of different foods. Some
Eskimoes, for instance, live healthily on a diet of fish and wild
animal meat - no fruit or vegetables at all - because all the
nutrients they need are contained inside the animal and fish
meat that they eat.
Suggested answers:
People usually think that in order to be healthy, you need to eat
certain foods. - a balance of fruit, meat, vegetables, bread etc. But
in fact this is not true. We need certain nutrients - fat,
carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and minerals - not certain foods.
There are many examples of people with very healthy diets who do
not think about eating a ‘balance’ of different foods. Some
Eskimoes, for instance, live healthily on a diet of fish and wild
animal meat - no fruit or vegetables at all, because all the
nutrients they need are contained inside the animal and fish meat
that they eat.
Extract from Dummett & Hughes (2019) Critical Thinking in ELT National Geographic Learning
For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.
E. Hemingway
http://www.sixwordstories.net/
Boy wizard beats Voldemort
seven times.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5309001/Twitter-Great-works-of-literature-shortened-into-tweets.html
Discussion skills
views.”
From Life Pre-Intermediate From Life Advanced
Research skills
“I want to find out more
about this.”
Work in pairs. Look at these different sources of information and score the
reliability of each one:
1 = Not a reliable source
2 = It might be reliable, but I’d need to check the information in another source.
3 = It’s usually a reliable source.
A A shared post on social media

B An article in a newspaper
C A video on YouTube
D A documentary on TV with interviews
E A published book by a qualified academic
F A photograph on a news website
G Your own research
H An entry on Wikipedia
Information literacy quiz
Read each situation and choose the best answer.
1 You want to include two sentences from an online article in your essay for homework. Which is
allowed?
A: Cut and paste the sentences into your own writing.
B: Use with sentences with quotation marks and reference to the author and source.
C: Rewrite parts of the sentences and make it look like your own writing.
2 You find a photo online that you would like to re-use on a school project. Which of the following
is it ok to do?
A Use the photo because you found it online.
B Use the photo if you have tried to find the name of the photographer but couldn’t.
C Use the photo if it comes with a free creative commons licence (with a CC symbol).
3 You made a short video and posted it online. A year later you find your video reposted on
someone else’s blog, but it doesn’t mention your name. How do you feel about this?
A. Really angry and you write to the blogger to complain.
B. A bit annoyed but that’s what happens on the internet.
C. Happy because this must mean it’s a good video.
After you have written your essay, swap your writing with a partner.
Read your partner’s essay and use this checklist:
Did the writer…?

• Introduce the topic [ ]
• State the aim of the essay (arguments for and against) [ ]
• Introduce arguments for (with supporting evidence) [ ]
• Introduce arguments against (with evidence) [ ]
• Balance both sides of the arguments [ ]
• Conclude with his/her own view [ ]
After you have written your essay, swap your writing with a partner.
Read your partner’s essay and use this checklist:
Did the writer…?

• …………………………………………………………………………………… [ ]
• …………………………………………………………………………………… [ ]
• …………………………………………………………………………………… [ ]
• …………………………………………………………………………………… [ ]
• …………………………………………………………………………………… [ ]
Summarizing skills
I’ve discovered.” Discussion skills
views.”
An advanced
Questioning skills
“What’s going on here?” learner
Research skills
“I want to find out more about this.”

Join National Geographic Learning!
ELTNGL.com/webinars
ELTNGL.com/infocus

Key Critical Thinking Skills For Advanced Learners: John Hughes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Key Critical Thinking Skills For Advanced Learners: John Hughes

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Key Critical Thinking Skills For Advanced Learners: John Hughes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Key critical thinking skills

for advanced learners

• Contrast critical thinking at lower levels (A1 to B1)

• Develop key critical thinking skills for advanced

Basic comprehension Creative thinking

Basic comprehension Creative thinking

• Fill-the-blanks • Analyse a text • Give a

Basic comprehension Creative thinking

Basic comprehension Creative thinking

Critical reflection skills

What do I already know about this topic?

What evidence does it include for the author’s argument?

What sources does the author provide?

Do I agree with the conclusion? Why? Why not?

Where can I find out more about this topic?

A A shared post on social media

Read each situation and choose the best answer.

Did the writer…?

Did the writer…?

Critical reflection skills

You might also like