The first priority for people who are beginner or low intermediate English
speakers, and are enrolled in ESL classes, is to improve their English. This
is best done by letting them listen to and read entertaining and familiar
content of their choosing, graded to their level. They should be encourage
to speak when they are ready and about things that are easy to talk about.
In other words the anxiety about using a second language needs to be
reduced. Forcing them to take positions on issues they have not considered
will not help their English. It makes no sense to me to confront these
learners with questions like the following from Cynthia.

"Broach the idea of countries. What are they? What are national boundaries?
In the 1800s, people who lived in the geographical area now known as Texas
used to be considered
Mexican. Then there was a war. Now they're Americans. Who makes national
boundaries? How are they decided? Does it matter? What are they for? Do
we really need them? What if we didn't have them?."

It is obvious from Cynthia's Change Agent web site, and the other reference
on this forum to a website on women's perspective ( I am not going to go
looking for it), that critical thinking here is confused with some kind of
social activism. There is nothing wrong with social activism, it is just
unfair to funders and clients of ESL programs to make them vehicles for
social activism. It is also counterproductive.

To evaluate the critical thinking ability of beginner ESL learners you would
have to speak to them in their language. It may be that they have quite a
developed level of critical thinking on issues that matter to them.

Steve



-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
1-604-922-8514
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