Fiction From a Critical Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1109.03Keywords:
critical thinking, EFL, higher education, novel, novella, short storyAbstract
With English as a lingua franca in mind, it has become essential for undergraduate students to acquire the English language. Additionally, undergraduate students are expected to acquire a repertoire of critical thinking skills for lifelong learning. Inspired by the need to augment mastery of English as a foreign language (EFL) whilst at the same time enhancing critical thinking on the part of EFL learners, the research study this paper portrays was conducted for one academic semester involving a number of students at the institution where the author of this paper works. The research aimed to investigate whether using English novels; novellas; and short stories for teaching purposes would have any significant impacts on subjects’ attitudes towards using literary texts for enhancement of both critical thinking and EFL skills. To achieve the intended aim, the researcher used eight English short stories and one novella in class besides assigning one English novel as extensive reading, while teaching the course Communication Skills during the implementation stage. The researcher also administered a pre-post questionnaire with the aim of measuring subjects’ attitudes towards utilizing novels; novellas; and short stories as a means for fostering both critical thinking and EFL skills. Based on the statistical tests, there were significant differences in favor of the post questionnaire regarding the majority of the questionnaire’s items. Based on this study, it can be concluded that English novels; novellas; and short stories have a significant role to play in relation to developing critical thinking and EFL skills.
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