Rethinking the Infusion Approach to Teaching Critical Thinking in Reading in Chinese Tertiary English Classes

The teaching of critical thinking (CT) has become an important requirement in many English language classrooms at different educational levels, yet little is known about how teachers promote the learning of CT. This article reports on a qualitative study examining the ways in which two university English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in China attempted to blend CT into their reading classrooms, and the factors that influenced their attempts at CT innovation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, artefacts, and observation of eight joint discussion sessions between the two participants and the first author were analyzed to explain the participants’ implementation of CT innovation in their intensive reading courses and the influential factors. The findings indicate that the teachers implemented CT innovation in reading instruction through the infusion approach, which means explicitly highlighting CT during the course orientation of their reading courses, while also improving the students’ CT abilities and language competence through reflective and collaborative writing using reading journals. The study also revealed several factors that influenced their attempts at CT innovation. The study sheds light on how teachers can be supported to innovate conventional CT instruction in the reading classroom.