Nowadays, Critical Thinking (CT) is considered to be one of the most important competences in our globalized and socially complex world and, therefore, "a significant goal" of language classes and "an integral part of […] language education" (Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 40, 48). Lacorte and Atienza even argue that a "giro crítico" (2018, 139), which translates to "critical turn", already began in the mid-1990s. Despite this clear demand, CT is rarely part of (language) classes or even school curricula.
The lack of research on CT in schools is taken as the starting point for this paper. It aims at providing information on and insights into a current PhD project in the area of Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) that deals with Critical Thinking in cross-curricular and cross-linguistic instruction. In the research project, self-designed project lessons (cf. Lacorte, Atienza 2018, 145) were conducted as an Action Research project (cf. Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 47f.) at a high school in Lower Saxony, Germany in the context of a Spanish-German bilingual program. The students of an 11th grade class were introduced to the topic "Feminism, violence against women and femicides in Spanish-speaking countries." This topic, which is part of Global Education, was dealt with on different levels and by means of different methodological approaches. Learners develop critical literacy "through interactive activities" (Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 41) by addressing critical content and questions (Lacorte, Atienza 2018, 145) and by developing a multi-perspective view. Since subject matter learning is seen as an effective tool for CT (Jones 2009), this project also uses Task-based learning (TBL) with real-life content. For example, the teacher guided the students through a practice in which they had to empathize with diverse roles. The students developed a freeze frame based on the questions the teacher asked them with regard to their individuals roles (cf. Büter 2018, 17). This practice encouraged the students to reflect on their roles, different life circumstances and "thereby broaden[ed] their horizons and instill[ed] a sense of CT" (Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 43f.). This exercise as well as other student products, developed in and outside of class, and their analysis will be the main focus of the presentation. In my talk, I will deal with the question how teachers and students critically engage with cultural and linguistic content.
Bibliography:
Büter, Mara (2018). Globales Lernen im Spanischunterricht. Eine Handreichung für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. Kipu-Verlag, Universität Bielefeld, Center for InterAmerican Studies (Unterrichtsmaterialienreihe "Wissen um globale Verflechtungen").
Jones, Anna (2009). Redisciplining generic attributes: the disciplinary context in focus. Studies in Higher Education 34(1), 85–100.
Lacorte, Manel & Atienza, Encarnación (2018). Dimensiones críticas en la enseñanza del español. In Javier Muñoz-Basols, Elisa Gironzetti and Manel Lacorte (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Language Teaching: metodologías, contextos y recursos para la enseñanza del español L2. London: Routledge Handbooks, 137-149.
Yuan, Rui & Stapleton, Paul (2020). Student teachers' perceptions of critical thinking and its teaching. ELT Journal Volume 74(1), 40-48. doi:10.1093/elt/ccz044.
