Teaching critical thinking skills through the use of short stories

The term "critical thinking" has been defined by numerous scholars in a variety of ways and there is no widely accepted standard definition. It is believed that using critical thinking skills in English classes enhances students' performance. The purpose of this study is to tackle whether critical thinking skills can be enhanced through short story teaching or not. Two high school classes which participated in the study were assigned into two experimental groups, control group and intervention group, and were given Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level X both as pretest and posttest. In the intervention group, students dwelt upon four short stories through critical thinking skills. Their structured class discussions paved the way for them to be exposed to the critical thinking use through Mr. Loveday's Little Outing by Evelyn Waugh, Miss Brill and The Fly by Katherine Mansfield, and A Family Supper by Kazuo Ishiguro. The results of the study highlight the importance of the synergy between critical thinking strategy use and short story teaching. Keywords : Critical thinking, short story teaching, English language teaching