Challenging the Status Quo: Critical Thinking Skills Integration in the EFL Curriculum of Young Learners

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of the Omani English language curriculum of young learners. The study implemented a content analysis checklist that was based on the six critical thinking skills which were agreed upon by a group of international critical thinking experts and declared in the Delphi Report that was published by the American Philosophical Association (APA). The two textbooks of grade four, second semester (4B) beside the Teacher’s Book, were utilized as the sample of this analysis. Results of the study showed a low level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of these textbooks as these tasks made up only (35.55%) of all the tasks in the textbooks. In addition, the self-examination subskill was highly represented compared with the other critical thinking subskills (20. 81%). Moreover, results showed that four of the critical thinking subskills (detecting arguments, analyzing arguments, presenting arguments, and self-correction) were absent from the tasks of both textbooks. Based on these findings several implications were addressed.