21st Century Critical Thinking Skills

One of the significant 21st century skills is critical thinking (CT), which is a term defined by many educators and researchers. Ennis (1985) gave a simple and intangible definition of CT as “reflective and reasonable thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do”, (p. 45). According to Ennis (1985) critical thinking covers the practical side of higher order thinking which is deciding what to believe or to do (as cited in Faravani & Atai, 2015). Facion (1998) defined CT in a slightly more complex way and stated that critical thinking is thinking that has a purpose while doing some tasks, for examples, when someone is proving a fact or idea, interpreting what something means or solving a problem. However, Halpern (2007) believed

In fact, it has long been addressed by old theorists and educators. For example, Piaget (1971) and Vygotsky (1962) confirmed there are close relationships between language and thinking skills (as cited in Faravani & Atai, 2015). CT has been noticed for some decades, and more recently, it has been identified as one of several learning and innovative skills essential to prepare students for higher education and the workforce (Lai, 2011). It has also reached a high position in foreign language teaching (FLT) settings (Birjandi & Bagherkazemi, 2010). In fact, educators have pondered the importance of critical thinking skills as an outcome of student learning (Ennis, 2011; Feng, 2014; Fisher, 2011; Halpern, 2014). Consequently, developing students’ critical thinking has become a significant notice in the field of language education and educators from all over the world have regarded them as an essential part of learning (Birjandi & Bagherkazemi, 2010 ; Ennis, 2011; Feng, 2014; Fisher, 2011; Halpern, 2014; Paul & Elder,

Listening is also considered to have an important role when a learner is learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Regarding the important role of listening in EFL classes, Nation and Newton (2008) stated “It has been claimed that over 50 percent of the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening” (page.37). Chastain (1988) highlighted the importance of this skill in second language learning by defining listening as “the ability to comprehend the spoken second language that plays an essential role in second language learning and use” (p.209).It also takes an important part in our daily communication and it makes a significant contribution in second/foreign language learning (Nunan, 2002). As Rost (2013) stated, listening has a vital role in the language classroom because it provides input for learners. Concerning the significance of listening, Rost (2014) stated that without understanding input at the right level, no learning