Developing Critical Thinking Skills and Attitude: An Analysis of a Reading Course in a University English Program

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether an English academic reading course in a Japanese university fosters critical thinking skills and attitude among its students. Critical thinking has long been a topic of debate in education, but especially recently, it has become a center of attention of educators in Japan. The English program of International Christian University, Tokyo, has been providing quality education with the aim of nurturing critical thinking skills through academic English. The research question asked in this paper is “How does the reading course of this program provide the students with opportunities to engage in critical thinking?” Based on definitions of critical thinking provided by several scholars, this paper analyzes classes and assignments to identify which critical thinking skills the students need to employ. The findings show that students do engage in activities that require critical thinking. This paper also implies that skills and attitude are inseparable for effective critical thinking.