CriticaL Thinking in Language Education

Providing an active learning environment that requires students to think critically is considered one of the tasks of foreign language teachers. This paper aims to explore teachers' perceptions on developing critical thinking among students and the impact they could have on language teaching. A qualitative study was conducted using a questionnaire addressing the teachers in the English department of Batna-2 University. The results revealed that the majority of the teachers recognized the central role played by critical thinking in the effectiveness of language pedagogy, but they gave priority to the need to teach the content subject rather than teaching for critical thinking. They perceived students as passive and unable to develop critical thinking skills, while they expressed a concern that teachers themselves may not have mastered critical thinking. A targeted professional development in the field of critical thinking is required to enable the teachers to effectively help students to think critically.