Research into lingua franca
Asian Students, Critical Thinking and English as an Academic Lingua Franca, This research was conducted by Michael Paton PHD of the University of Sydney. The abstract of this research was to compare the critical thinking of students from Asian countries in comparison to those of Western countries. Many experts such as Kutleieh and Egege (2003). Atkinson (2007) have argued that Asian Critical thinking skills are not compatible with learning in an English native speaking country. In contrast other experts have argued against this and quote the actual difficulty is studying in a second language.
Introduction, the researcher points to his twenty years of teaching experience and his research into the philosophy and culture of China has given him valuable personal knowledge. He strongly disagrees with the assertion of Kutleigh and Egege (2003) who believe that Critical thinking is the preserve of Western societies. He believes his own research and experience points to the opposite so he decided to carry out further research into this subject by interviewing students from three Chinese and one Indian university.
Definition of Critical thinking, the researcher then goes on to define the definitions of critical thinking citing references from other researchers such as Ennis (1989: 10), Halpern (1997) and Paul and Eleder (2000) who all give their definitions of what constitute Critical thinking skills. The researcher goes onto to quote several more researches as to give a clear and varied definition of what can be considered as Critical thinking skills. The researcher states that the problem with Critical thinking is that it isn’t a universal process, what is acceptable to a European environment is not necessarily applicable to Asia but it doesn’t mean that the Asian idea is wrong. According to Graham (1989) many parallels between classical Greek and Chinese Critical thinking can be found.
English as an Academic Lingua Franca, as an example of the global impact of the
Introduction, the researcher points to his twenty years of teaching experience and his research into the philosophy and culture of China has given him valuable personal knowledge. He strongly disagrees with the assertion of Kutleigh and Egege (2003) who believe that Critical thinking is the preserve of Western societies. He believes his own research and experience points to the opposite so he decided to carry out further research into this subject by interviewing students from three Chinese and one Indian university.
Definition of Critical thinking, the researcher then goes on to define the definitions of critical thinking citing references from other researchers such as Ennis (1989: 10), Halpern (1997) and Paul and Eleder (2000) who all give their definitions of what constitute Critical thinking skills. The researcher goes onto to quote several more researches as to give a clear and varied definition of what can be considered as Critical thinking skills. The researcher states that the problem with Critical thinking is that it isn’t a universal process, what is acceptable to a European environment is not necessarily applicable to Asia but it doesn’t mean that the Asian idea is wrong. According to Graham (1989) many parallels between classical Greek and Chinese Critical thinking can be found.
English as an Academic Lingua Franca, as an example of the global impact of the