Be critical – but never criticise without a reason
I’ve been working as a Cambridge Speaking Examiner (SE) since 2015 and one of the most important things that I learnt from the SE notes was to always ask the question ‘Why (not)?’. Whatever question we ask our candidates, we always follow up with ‘why?’. You might think that it’s easy to give a reason why you like or dislike, agree or disagree, but it isn’t always so simple. What’s more, having an opinion cannot be taken for granted either: it’s a skill that needs to be learnt and developed.
Now, let’s stop for a second: repeating what you were drilled to say is a piece of cake, however, it’s not your opinion. So, the first sign of a maturing mind is to disagree. This is the reason why I like working with teens: they are the perfect age to disagree with anybody about anything. However, they get blocked when you ask them why they do so. Giving a reason for any opinion needs more grey matter – as a matter of fact, more white matter. What it needs is called ‘critical thinking’ and has become one of the most discussed, defined, debated and misunderstood concepts.
Indeed (a website I recommend for job interview preparation) explains that critical thinking has 6 levels: 1. Analytical thinking; 2. Good communication; 3. Creative thinking; 4. Open-mindedness; 5. Ability to solve problems; 6. Asking thoughtful questions.
Future Learn identifies 7 steps to be a ‘critical thinker’:
- Analysing and weighing up arguments
- Evaluating evidence that has been presented
- Distinguishing between fact and opinion
- Reviewing the research methods used (how the data has been gathered)
- Considering the potential for bias
- Analysing different interpretations, viewpoints and perspectives
- Reaching conclusions based on your own reasoning.
Being an extremely practical person, I prefer simplifying things as Cambridge Dictionary does with the following definition: the process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea, without allowing feelings or opinions to affect you. So, to my mind, critical thinking is that you:
a) have your opinion
b) can justify it with appropriate language
c) after considerable consideration of the opinions contradicting yours.
So, if I was asked whether I agree that language teachers should be native speakers of the target language, I would answer:
- I disagree and I firmly think that non-native teachers are of great value,
- because they are language learners themselves and understanding their drawbacks make them even more meticulous at preparing their lessons and finding answers to their students’ questions,
- although we cannot deny that educated native speakers have an innate sense of deciding if a sentence sounds correct or not; moreover, they are also at an advantage in pronunciation drills.
As I mentioned in my previous article, the lesson of critical thinking was taught to me by an extraordinary professor. He had the courage, only a few years after socialism was defeated in our country, to ask us to take traditional and well-respected grammar books and read them with criticism. He encouraged us to find statements, ideas, examples that were wrong, cross them out and then bring these to our next lesson and explain why we thought they were incorrect. In socialism, having an opinion was penalised. So, having the permission and possibility to express what we thought and express that an expert, a professor, a teacher might be wrong was deliberating. I was electrified by this exercise: I read these grammar references with eagerness to find something and express my opinion. This became my routine and one of the basic skills I’m teaching to my students. It doesn’t matter if a student thinks what I think, my opinion is the last to discuss, it’s way more important that they justify their ideas.
Have you ever noticed that we keep criticising TV, the Internet, social media, but we end up spending more and more time there? I always saw these media as an opportunity to develop language skills. When my kids finish an episode and come to the dinner table, the question is: What did you watch? What happened? Do you agree with the characters and their opinions? Why (not)?
The same happens on social media, I put likes after the question: why do I like this? If I can give a reasonable explanation, I click the heart/thumb up icon. So whenever you are about to click a like button, stop and ask yourself why: opinion or prejudice? Is it you who thinks? If so, why do you like it? Why don’t you like it? Why do you agree? Why do you disagree?
Once you have practised this skill with simple opinions, you need to apply it also to your professional life. We tend to accept other people’s judgements and learn to believe that we are what they think we are. This is a dangerous trap, because you won’t have control over your work and life any more. Many young colleagues leave teaching because they cannot process feedback. Not only because people tend to criticise more than praise, but also because humans rarely express their real opinion, they often just manipulate others. So having a healthy sense of critical thinking can and will save you from undeserved destructive criticism or even undeserved praise. Being able to analyse what is said, remove emotional reactions and feelings and understand the speaker’s motivation, might set you free from unfair messages.
Let me give you examples from my 20-year history as a language teacher where I could/should have been more critical myself:
You might have noticed that I mentioned an excellent language school in my previous posts more than once, the one that is still the ideal school for me as regards its structure and policy. However, I never told you why I left the school. Well, my main head teacher (an excellent colleague nonetheless), promoted me to senior teacher after just one year – based on students’ feedback and my participation in organising and creating didactic materials for the other teachers. However, the routine was to become a senior teacher after at least five years, so every senior teacher was at least 5 years older than me, more probably 10-15 years older. When I showed up at the first senior teacher meeting at the age of 24, they directed me to the library, thinking I was lost. They honestly looked at me despicably. Well, they didn’t have to wait for long to get me out of the team: their head teacher, a prominent German teacher and examiner, vice head teacher at that time at the institute came to visit one of my lessons. I was overprepared, the lesson went ok (it wasn’t outstanding, but it wasn’t bad either). After sitting through the entire lesson without a smile, she gave me the most cruel feedback I’d ever received. If you have ever heard about German directness, then multiply it with some human hate and you will hear what I got after that lesson: ‘At least, you can speak German. For sure, you cannot teach. You are lucky that you met me. I can show you how this is done’, she said. What would you have answered? Seriously, what would your reaction have been? Well, I collapsed. I cried on the phone for six hours to my mum (all my love and gratitude to her) and after a month I was on an aeroplane moving abroad. I shouldn’t have done that: I should have used my critical thinking skills and filter the cruel comments on my job. I should have looked beyond the words and looked at the motivation.
So my second message to young and old is: always filter your feelings from your opinion and clear your head before you make a decision. You might even want to refuse a promotion if you think that timing is not right. Just know why you do that.
Being a teacher is honestly the best job for many reasons, one of them is that you can make people grow in their critical thinking. I remember a 15-year old student who didn’t have any opinion about anything. Whenever I asked him what he thought about this or that, his answer was ‘dunno’. I thought this was tragic. However, when I started to work with PhD-students, I realised that the situation was even more urgently in need of improvement. PhD-students thrive in their fields, but often have zero insight into other fields – with due respect to all exceptions. They stay in their comfort zone, repeat their lectures and read their slides, but have very little opinion about anything else. Or even worse, they have an opinion without justification. So, while many colleagues of mine think that these highly educated researchers need TEDTalks and presentation skills (which is also true), I honestly think that they simple need lessons on critical thinking. Our classroom is the safe zone to disagree, to express any opinions, to analyse the whereabouts of our beliefs and maybe polish on our points of view. It also gives the possibility to get inspiration for our own research.
Finally, an observation that all my teacher colleagues might have made: Some students never arrive beyond B1 level, they struggle to pass a B2 exam, let alone a C1 or C2 level. They attend language lessons consistently and do all their homework assignments, but they just cannot pass the border to become a professional speaker. They might even have the most prepared and motivated teacher and they very probably have invested a huge amount of money into their language tuition. They even learnt the layout of an English essay (yes, paragraphs make a difference) and learnt a series of linking devices by heart. Why can’t they get to the C-levels?
Now, let me take you to the most important message of this article: The reason why this happens is that these students have a B2 level in their own mother tongue. To become a C1-C2 level language speaker in any language (first or second), one requires more than vocabulary items and grammatical accuracy. It’s more than understanding a variety of accents and dialects and being able to pronounce lexical items accurately. It’s about being able to analyse a question, express an opinion and justify one’s idea: in both, mother tongue and second languages. It’s really just about being able to answer the simple exam question: Why (not)?
This is why a language teacher must be a master and trainer of critical thinking.
PS: This article was originally published on Linkedin on 9th December 2023. Here is the original post.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO NOW?
