Developing critical thinking skills in Russian language studies: Online learning tools in Chinese universities. (6th November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hongwei, Zhou
• Is Part Of: Foreign language annals. Volume 55:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 98
• Page End: 115
• Publication Date: 2021-11-06
• Subjects: critical thinking -- L2 learning -- online learning environments -- Russian as a foreign language -- self‐regulated learning; Languages, Modern -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 418.0071
• DOI: 10.1111/flan.12583
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0015-718X

Abstract

Abstract: The article aims to determine the role of critical thinking skills in learning Russian at Chinese universities and to consider this aspect when organizing an online learning environment for students. The research involved 600 students and 50 teachers from the Russian language and math faculties. The analysis of Chinese students' Russian language learning allowed the conclusion that there is a possible relationship between language competence and critical thinking skills. At the same time, the study did not identify any educational standards that included critical thinking as a skill in the educational process. The study showed that the Chinese education system needs to align educational standards with fundamental concepts of critical thinking and move away from a random use of individual theories tools. Future research might concentrate on testing the hypothesis about the close relationship between critical thinking and success in learning Russian as an L2 using various statistical methods (for instance, Student's t test or Kruskal–Wallis test). The Challenge: The present research puts forward a hypothesis about a possible correlation between critical thinking skills and the process of L2 learning (on the example of Russian), which can be clearly traced within the framework of Chinese online education. Apart from this, the paper also addresses the main challenges associated with the methods used in learning L2 online. In conclusion, it brings an assumption that the generalization of the results obtained can become a topic for future research.