Promoting Critical Thinking (HOTS) among High School EFL Students of Bangladesh: A Study of “Unit Fourteen” of English for Today, Class 9 & 10

Abstract

Pedagogues advocating critical thinking consider it an integral part of education and believe that language learners need to be trained in critical thinking. Critical thinking requires students to be actively involved in their own learning process as they attempt to individually understand and apply the information they are exposed to during the classroom interaction. Moreover, students dealing with literary materials are expected to think critically and apply their analytical capabilities on the texts they read. The current research indicates that critical thinking strategies in the high school classroom can improve students’ academic performance. It investigates how literary texts found in “Unit Fourteen” of English for Today, Class 9 & 10 can be used to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) of the L2 learners. This research is based on findings, both quantitative and qualitative, which demonstrate that, since literary texts that are authentic, enjoyable, and motivating would naturally increase both their knowledge of the target language patterns and cultural awareness, a proper implementation of Bloom’s Taxonomy with literary materials can significantly develop students’ linguistics skills along with their critical thinking skills.