QRCV APPROACH TO ENHANCING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN ESP LEARNING

Abstract

The term ‘Critical Thinking’ increasingly appears in education and language teaching. It would be among key skills for any 21^st century learner (Hughes, 2014). Recently, considerable attention has been paid to critical teaching approaches in studying foreign languages. It is usually difficult for students to acquire financial knowledge in English even though they have already passed a basic English course in non-English speaking countries. We introduce the QRCV approach for enhancing learners’ CT skills so that learners can overcome challenges in ESP learning. The main principle of the QRCV approach is heuristic Questioning, Reasoning, Considering the issues from different angles, and Visualizing in learning ESP. Our study aims at validating the QRCV approach in enhancing learners’ CT skills in ESP learning. Participants were 72 students learning finance in English. During a semester, the experimental group (n=36) took the financial English course through the QRCV approach while the control group took it in a conventional approach. The self-developed instrument, Critical Thinking Skills Test for Financial English (CTSTFE) was used as a pretest and posttest, and their results were scored by instructors in accordance with relevant criteria for CT skills. The findings indicate that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the course achievement, especially in the dimension of Considering from multiple-perspectives. Implications for applying QRCV to other ESP courses in general are suggested.