Promoting Critical Thinking Skills for EFL Learners Through Teacher Questioning

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which teacher questioning can be helpful in promoting students’ critical thinking skills, accordingly the main purpose is to examine the cognitive levels of questions English teachers ask EFL learners at the University of Tiaret based on Bloom’s taxonomy. To increase the validity of our research, two online questionnaires were sent to a sample of both 16 English teachers and 65 Master and License English students at the University of Ibn Khaldoun Tiaret. The data gained was compared to Bloom’s taxonomy, in order to examine the types of questions asked in the classroom according to the six cognitive levels of Bloom’s taxonomy consisting of lower level questions (knowledge, comprehension and application), and higher-level questions (analysis, synthesis and evaluation). The findings show that both teachers and students are aware of the importance of teacher questioning in developing students’ critical thinking skills