1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the general issues related to the present study. These include the background of the study, research questions, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and organization of the thesis.
1.1. Background of the Study
In this rapidly changing information age, the proliferation of accessible data has created a vital requirement for individuals to think critically. In response to this, Chaffee (2000, p. 5) believes that the ability to think critically and to reason well has been considered an important and necessary outcome of education in order to function effectively in this globalized world. In his further notes, Chaffee said that it is vital to try to determine the accuracy of information and evaluate the credibility of the people providing the information.
2
With regard to the English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indonesia, critical thinking has been a challenging issue. Indonesian EFL teachers are given responsibility to assist their students to acquire critical thinking skills while learning English (Alwasilah, 2001). This is done to give them adequate practice in critical thinking so that they can actively participate in the international community particularly in the global workplace.
3
Another study on critical thinking was conducted by Emilia (2005) in an English department of one state university in West Java, Indonesia. She focused her concerns on designing activities aimed to improve students’ argumentative writing skill and critical capacities. Her finding showed that the students gained some development in both writing skills and critical capacities as reflected in their essays. This development, as she reported, is the implication of the critical thinking development program conducted in the writing class she taught. Other finding related to critical thinking investigation is also reported by Alagozlu (2007). Focusing on students’ argumentation essays in one university in Turkey, she found that most of the students were poor in demonstrating their critical thinking in terms of writing like arguments, evidence, refutation, etc. In this case, the students failed to give reasonable reasons and evidence as parts of critical thinking indicator in their writing.
4
find it difficult to demonstrate critical thinking elements such as arguments, reasons, and evidence in their essays ( see also Moore and Parker, 1995; Stapleton, 2001; Reichenbach, 2001, among others) which directly show their ability to create a good and thoughtful argumentative writing (Chaffee, 2000).
Departing from the facts described above, this present study aims to investigate students’ critical thinking as demonstrated in their argumentative essays. As has been proven by Reichenbach, (2001); Flores, (2006) and Alagozlu (2007) through their studies, argumentative writing is an effective means to portray students’ critical thinking. According to them, the argumentative writing assists students in making ideas of their own, clarifying opinions or beliefs and sorting out the evidence which are part of critical thinking realization. In addition, this study also aims to find out the students’ consciousness on their own critical thinking. In this sense, information regarding their awareness as to whether they show critical thinking and individual voice has been the object to investigate through out the study.
1.2. Research Questions
This study attempts to answer the following research questions:
1. What elements of critical thinking are demonstrated in students’ argumentative essays?
5 1.3. Purposes of the Study
As mentioned in the background above, this study aims:
1. to investigate elements of critical thinking as demonstrated in students’ argumentative essays.
2. to find out the students’ consciousness of their own critical thinking skills.
1.4. Significance of the Study
With regard to the significance of the study, this research has the potential to the theory, educational and professional practices.
Theoretically, this study is expected to enrich the literature on critical thinking in the context of academic writing which is still likely received a little attention in Indonesian EFL context.
Practically, this study provides information related to students’ critical thinking in order to seek remedies to integrate critical thinking into the classroom and the curricula especially in the English education department of the university.
6 1.5. Scope of the Study
7 1.6. Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is organized into five chapters.
105
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents conclusions of the study and some recommendations. These conclusions of the study are built up based on the data analysis which is discussed in Chapter Four of this research report. Some recommendations are provided in order to give information as well as guidance to conduct further research concerning the same field or issue. Finally, these recommendations are addressed to those who are interested in developing the students’ critical thinking particularly in the context of EFL in Indonesia in general and in the site in particular.
5.1. Conclusions
106
applying the critical thinking concept. In this sense, most of the students were unable to explicitly and clearly support and elaborate their ideas with sufficient reasons and facts from credible sources that can promote their arguments credibility. This findings support the previous studies concerning the students’ critical thinking in EFL contexts like those conducted by Stapleton (2001), Alagozlu, (2007) and Flores (2008) as mentioned in Chapter Two.
From the linguistic perspective, students have been able to show their awareness of using various processes in building the field of knowledge especially material and mental processes which also indicates their awareness to create analytical texts (Emilia, 2005). However, the results of analysis also show that they have not been able to exploit various linguistic resources in their texts especially to do with textual and interpersonal metafunctions. Textually, the students have not been able to employ patterns of Theme progression (the zig-zag pattern, the Theme reiteration, and multiple theme) which are actually important to create a more coherent and cohesive
texts (Eggins, 2004). Interpersonally, although the students have used various modality in their text which directly shows their care in expressing their ideas and opinion, this used of modality was undeveloped and less interactive because most of the texts only employed the declarative mood which simply functions to inform the reader (Eggins, 2004).
107
The findings gained from the interview revealed that the students were able to mention the purpose of the expository genre correctly. However, most of them have not been familiar yet with the concept of the genre particularly in terms of generic structure and linguistic features. This confirms the finding of the text analysis in which most of their texts were less coherence and explicit suggesting that they need to be taught the genre (text type) explicitly. In terms of critical thinking, it is found that students have basically shown a relatively clear understanding on the concepts of critical thinking although in the text its verbalization is less sophisticated and explicit due to the limited knowledge on the issue they write and lack of knowledge in applying their critical thinking in writing. All these suggest that critical thinking should explicitly be taught to the students as will be elaborated in the following section.
5.2.Recommendation
In line with the topic under discussion which is about critical thinking in students’ writing and the findings as illustrated above, the following recommendations which have to do with the teaching of writing and critical thinking development program are worth trying especially by the teachers teaching in the site.
108
argumentative genre. In response to this, the teacher should teach the genre explicitly to the students, e.g., the generic structure, purpose of the genre, linguistic features, etc, as suggested by Hyland (1999). In addition, because writing is a complex process and learning to write requires writing, the teacher should give students more practices
and spaces to write and re-write certain texts (Chaffee, 2000). Besides, they also should
give students more guidance and constructive feedbacks. Finally, it is also recommended
that the teaching of writing be integrated with other macro skills e.g., reading, speaking
and listening. This way, students can be introduced with various texts and aspect of
language that enable them to use language for different purposes and contexts especially
in their writing.
Second, in order to help students to promote their writing skill capacity and their critical
thinking, it is recommended that a certain program be conducted in the site. As suggested
by the students, a special teaching program aims to enhance both students writing skills
and critical thinking should be incorporated in the curriculum. In this case, a model of
teaching program incorporating genre based approach (GBA) is worth trying. Through
this approach, students’ process of learning is divided into four stages: Building
Knowledge of the Field, Modeling, Joint Construction and Independent Construction
(Rothery, 1986; Derewianka, 1990; Feez and Joyce, 1998, 2008, among others). Given
this model of learning, through the principle of explicit teaching in GBA, students will
have more opportunities to get more exposure on both the background knowledge of the
109
process. Besides, students will also have more spaces to practice their writing both
collaborative and individual writing.
Moreover, students can also be introduced to the concept of critical thinking. As
mentioned in Chapter Four, most of the students were not aware of their critical thinking
in the context of writing which results in their failure to verbalize their critical thinking
sophisticatedly. Therefore, explicit teaching of the aspects of critical thinking such as
critical thinking standard (e.g., clarity, relevance, precision) and critical thinking
dispositions should also be conducted. This way is expectedly contribute to the
110
BIBLIOGRAHY
Alagozlu, N. (2007). Critical Thinking and Voice in EFL Writing. Asian EFL Journal Vol 7 No 3, September 2007.
Alwasilah, C.A. (2001). Language, Culture and Education. Bandung: Andira. Anderson, Dale, O. (1998). Critical writing
(http://www2.latech.edu/-dalea/instruction/criticalwrite.html.) Accessed on May 13th, 2011.
Anderson, M and Anderson, K (1997). Text Types in English. MacMillan Education Australia.
Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Atkinson (1997). A Critical Approcah to critical thinking in TESOL ©2000-2009 ITHAKA. TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 31 No 1, Spring 1997. (http://www.jstor.org/pss/3587975)
Bailey, S. (2003). Academic Writing: A Practical Guide for Students. London: Routledge Falmet.
Beyer, B. K. (1995). Critical thinking. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
Bogdan, R.C., & Biklen, S.K. (1998). Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: The Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Burke, A and Williams, M.J. (2008). Developing Young Thinkers: An intervention aimed to enhance children’s thinking skills. Thinking Skills and Creativity 3 (2008) 104–124 (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tsc)
111
Chaffee, J., McMahon, C., Stout, B. (2002). Critical thinking, Thoughtful writing. Second edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Chandra, J.S. (2004). Notions of Critical Thinking in Javanese, Batak Toba and Minangkabau
Culture(http://ebooks.iaccp.org/ongoing_themes/chapters/chandra/chandra.p hp?file=chandra&output=screen)
Chance, P. (1986). Thinking in the classroom: A survey of programs. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
Coffin, C. (1997). “Constructing and giving value to the past: An investigation into secondary school history’. In Christie, F., and Martin. J.R. (1997). Genre and Institutions. Social Processes in the workplace and school. London. Continuum.
Cohen, L., and Manion, L. (1994). Research Method in Education. Fourth edition. London: Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane.
Cohen, Andrew, D., (1998). Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. Longman: New York and London.
Cottrell, S. (2005). Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument. New York. Palgrave McMillan.
Cresswell, J.W. (2008). Educational Research. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc
Cummins, Jim. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy. Multilingual Matters Ltd. De Bono, E. (1976). Teaching Thinking. London. Maurice Temple Smith Ltd Derewianka, B (1990). Exploring How Texts Work. Newtown: PETA
Diestler, S. (2001). Becoming a Critical Thinker. A User Friendly Manual. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc
Elder, L and Paul, R. (1996). Defining Critical Thinking. Retrieved on April 3rd, 2011 from http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/define critical thinking.cfm. Emilia, E. (2005). A Critical Genre-Based Approach to Teaching Academic Writing
112
Emilia, E. (2008). Menulis Tesis dan Disertasi. Bandung, Indonesia: Penerbit Alfabeta.
Emilia, E. (2010). Teaching Writing: Developing Critical Learners. Rizqi Press. Eggins, S. (1994). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London:
Printer Publishers, Ltd.
Ennis, R. H., & Weir, E. (1985). The Ennis-Weir critical thinking essay test. Pacific Grove, CA: Midwest.
Ennis, H.R. (2003). “Critical Thinking Assessment” in Fasco, Jr. D (2003). Critical Thinking and Reasoning. Current Research, Theory and Practice. Cresskill, New jersey: Hampton Press, Inc.
Facione, A. p. (2006). Critical Thinking: What Is It Is and why It Counts. http://kolla.oru.se/oruupload/Institutioner/Humaniora/Dokument/filosofi/Kur smaterial/On_critical_thinking.pdf
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.
Fasco, D. (2003). Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Current Research, Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Hampton Press, Inc.
Feez, S., and Joyce, H. (1998b). Writing Skills. Narrative and Nonfiction Texts Types. Melbourne: Phoenix Education Pty. Ltd.
Fisher,. A. (2001). Critical Thinking: An Introduction. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Flores, R.D. (2006) Thinking Skills Reflected in the Argumentative Essays of Freshman College Students: A descriptive Analysis. De La Salle
University-Manila, Philippines.
(http://www.philjol.info/index.php/TAPER/article/viewFile/90/87)
Freebody, P. (2003). Qualitative Research in Education. Interaction and Practice. London: SAGE Publication.
113
Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding Language: Scaffolding Learning; Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. Heinemann.
Gibbons, P. (2003). Learning to Learn in a Second Language. Primary English Teaching Association.
Gibbons, P. (2009). English Learners Academic Literacy and Thinking. Heinemann. Glassner, A and Schwarz (2006). What stands and develops between creative and critical thinking? Argumentation? Thinking Skills and Creativity 2 (2007) 10–18 (www.sciencedirect.com)
Inch et al .(2006). Critical Thinking and Communication. Longman.
Halliday, M. A K, (1985b). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London, Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985c). Part A of Language, Context and Text: Aspects of language in a social semiotic perspective. Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. (1985). Burwood, Melbourne: Deakin University.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994a). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. (2 nd
Ed). London, Edward Arnold.
Hammond, J. (2001). Scaffolding Teaching and Learning in Language and Literacy Education. Australia: Primary English Teaching Association.
Holliday, A. (2003). Doing and Writing Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publication.
Hyland, K. (2009). Genre and Second Language Writing. University Michigan Press. Hyland, Ken. & Hyland, Fiona. (2006). Feedback in Second Language Writing. USA:
Cambridge University Press.
Joyce, H. & Feez, S. (2000). Writing Skills: Narrative and Non-Fiction Text Types. Phoenix Education.
114
Kameo Rosella M. (2007). Critical Thinking in the Classroom: Some Cultural Constraints. English Edu: Journal of Language Teaching and Research. Vol. 7, No 1 January 2007.
Knapp, Peter. & Watkins, Megan. 2005. Genre, Text, Grammar: Technologies for Teaching and Assessing Writing. Australia: UNSW Press.
Kress, G. and Hodge, R. (1993). Language as Ideology. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.
Kress, Gunter. (1982). Learning to Write. Ruotledge & Kegan Paul.
Kurfiss, J.G. (1998). Critical Thinking: Theory, Research and Possibilities. Washington DC: ASHE (Association for the Study of Higher Education) Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing.
London: Sage Publication Ltd.
Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in Education. Second Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lizzaraga et al (2009). Enhancement of Thinking Skills: Effects of Two Intervention
Method. Thinking Skills and Creativity 4 (2009) 30–43
(http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tsc)
Love, C. in Doecke B, 1999 (editor), Responding to Students’ Writing. Australian Association for the Teaching of English Inc.
Macken-Horaik, M. (2002). “Something to Shoot For”, in Johns, A.M. (2002) Ed. Genre in the Classroom. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Martin, J.R., Matthiessen MIM, Christian. & Painter, Clare. (1997). Working with Functional Grammar. New York: St Martin’s Press, Inc.
Martin, J.R. and Rose. 2008. Genre Relations: Mapping Culture. London: Equinox Maxwell, A. Joseph. (1996). Qualitative Research Design. An Interactive Approach.
London: SAGE Publications.
115
McPeck, J.e. (1990). Teaching Critical Thinking. London: Routledge.
Merriam, Sharan B. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case study Application in Education. San Fransisco; Jossey-Bass Publisher.
Merriam, Sharan B. (1998). Case Study Research in Education (A qualitative approach). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publisher.
Moore, B. N., and Parker, R (1994). Critical Thinking. London. Mayfield Publishing
Company.
Nickerson, R.S. et al. (1985). The Teaching of Thinking. New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Inc
Norris, S.P. and Ennis, R.H. (1990). The Practicioners’ Guide to Teaching Thinking Series. Evaluating Critical Thinking. Melbourne: Hawker Bronlow Education.
Norris, P.s. (2009). Synthesis of Research on critical thinking. (http://www.ileraincambodia.org/ct/synthCT.pdf) P.S.
Nunan, David., & Bailey, Kathleen M. (2009). Exploring Second Language Classroom Research. USA: Heinle Cengage Learning.
Oshima, Alice. & Hogue, Ann. (1999). Writing Academic English. Addison Wesley Longman.
Paltridge, Brian & Starfield, Sue. (2007). Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language. New York: Routledge.
Paul, R. W. (1990). Critical thinking: How to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Santa PIRLS 2001 Retrieved on January 10, 2010 from http://timss.bc.edu/pirls2001i/PIRLS2001
Paul, R.W. (1993). Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World; Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park.
116
Piccioto, M (2000). Critical Thinking. A casebook. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Ravelli, Louise J. & Ellis, Robert A. (2004). (Editor). Analyzing Academic Writing.
Continuum.
Reichenbach, B.H. (2001). Introduction to Critical Thinking. New York: McGrawhill Reed, J. (1998). Effect of a Model for Critical Thinking on Student, Achievement in
Primary Source Document Analysis and Interpretation, Argumentative Reasoning, Critical thinking Dispositions, and History Content in a
Community College History Course. A thesis.
(http://www.criticalthinking.org/resources/JReed-Dissertation.pdf_)
Renaud D.R. and Murray, G. (2008). A comparison of a subject-specific and a general measure of critical thinking. Elsevier, Thinking Skills and Creativity 3 (2008) 85–93 (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tsc)
Siegel, H. (1988). Educating Reason: Rationality, Critical Thinking and Education. New York: Routlledge
Silverman, D. (2005). Doing Qualitative Research. Second Edition: London Sage Publication.
Scriven, M. (1976). Reasoning. New York: McGraw Hill
Simosi, M. (2007). Using Toulmin’s Framework for the Analysis of Everyday
Argumentation: Some Methodological Consideration.
(http://logic.sysu.edu.cn/logic/Soft/UploadSoft/200712/20071226200509616 .pdf)
Stapleton, P. (2001). Assessing students’ critical thinking in the Japanese University
Students. (http://
www.sagepub.com/upm-data/2996_10cwq01.pdf#page=15)
Swales, John M. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Setting. USA: Cambridge University Press.
117
Toulmin, S. (1969). The Uses of Argument, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press
Travers, Max. (2001). Qualitative Research through Case Studies. London: Sage Publications.
Unswoth, Len. (2000). (Editor). Researching Language in Schools and Communities: Functional Linguistic Perspectives. Great Britain: TJ International Ltd,
