ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept of critical thinking from a ‘Western’ perspective. It first explains how this concept came to be seen as an educational ideal in Anglo-European societies. It then focusses on the field of second language education and reviews how critical thinking is conceptualised and researched alongside the teaching of English as a second language. Within this context, it defines critical thinking in its cognitive sense, as skills of reasoning and making evaluative judgements. Based on issues emerged from existing research, however, it points out that students’ critical thinking skills cannot be sufficiently developed by merely using a cognitive approach.
