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- Title
Some Problematic "Channels" In the Teaching of Critical Thinking in Current L1 Composition Textbooks: Implications for L2 Student-Writers.
- Authors
Ramanathan, Vai; Kaplan, Robert B.
- Abstract
Advanced writing courses in many freshman composition programs stress the importance of teaching critical thinking skills where students--both L1 and L2--are encouraged to examine and question the social world they inhabit. Derived from an analysis of 12 current freshman composition textbooks, we identify three common "channels" through which student-writers are inducted into the critical thinking practice. These three channels are: (I) using informal logic as a way of developing students' reasoning strategies, (2) developing and refining students "problem solving skills, and (3) developing students' ability to analyze hidden assumptions in "everyday arguments.' This study calls attention to the problematic nature of these "channels" and to some implications of transferring these channels in L2 writing classrooms. We believe that critical thinking is largely a sociocognitive practice that draws significantly on shared cultural practices and norms that mainstream students have (had) access to. ESL student-writers, however given their diverse sociocultural backgrounds, have not necessarily been socialized in ways that would make induction into critical thinking a (relatively) smooth process (Atkinson & Ramanathan, 1995). Using critical thinking textbooks (written by and large for L1 students) then, in L2 writing classrooms has complex consequences. Based on our current examination and previous study (Ramanathan & Kaplan, 1996a), we propose a discipline oriented approach to teaching writing, especially for non-native student-writers.
- Subjects
WRITING; ENGLISH as a foreign language; CRITICAL thinking; PROBLEM solving; NATIVE language; REASONING; ARGUMENT
- Publication
Issues in Applied Linguistics, 1996, Vol 7, Issue 2, p225
- ISSN
1050-4273
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5070/l472005242