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Traces of Critical Thinking Ability in the English for Academic Purposes Textbook for the Students of Medicine

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of English Language, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

2 M.A. Student, Department of English Language, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the representation of critical thinking in English for the Students of Medicine (II) and the status of the EAP students’ critical thinking ability as its main users. Peterson’s model was used to identify different types of critical reading questions. Furthermore, 150 students of medicine, as the main users of the textbook, completed a critical thinking questionnaire. The results revealed that a large proportion of the exercises in this textbook reflected Vocabulary in Context and Literal Comprehension questions while Extended Reasoning questions, as the major category catering for critical reading, constituted only five percent of the whole items. The results of an independent sample t-test also indicated a moderate level of critical thinking ability among the EAP students of medicine regardless of their gender. The findings call for revisiting the English for Medical Purposes materials and incorporating more activities and exercises gearing to higher-order cognitive skills and critical thinking ability to empower the EAP students with the required set of skills to be successful in their academic and professional communities.

Keywords

References
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Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory
Volume 4, Issue 14 - Serial Number 14
August 2021
Pages 42-47
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