Activities to Promote Tertiary-Level Learners’ Critical Thinking Skills in EFL Classrooms

Numerous studies on the use of diversified critical thinking (CT) activities in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms are available in today’s educational setting. However, there is a dearth of systematic reviews in this area, which are indispensable for enriching the understanding of effective CT practices and guiding future pedagogical implementations in EFL contexts. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the existing literature from the past one and a half decades (2009–2024) to identify and highlight the most significant CT activities practiced and applicable across various foreign language learning contexts worldwide. For the systematic review, several reputable and reliable search databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, SAGE, Taylor and Francis, ERIC, and Google Scholar were browsed, and a total of twenty-five research articles were consulted to serve the purpose. The findings, based on thematic analysis, indicated that several specific activities, for example, Socratic questioning, debate, process-based writing, peer evaluation, critical reading, and so forth, play active roles simultaneously in developing learners’ overall language proficiency and CT skills. This study may help educators in similar contexts reassess their teaching practices and integrate essential activities into their classroom contexts to enhance learners’ CT skills.