University-Level English Major Students’ Strategies to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

Critical thinking follows cognitive procedures such as analysing, evaluating, synthesising, and interpreting. University-level English major students need to develop critical thinking skills to thrive intellectually in this competitive world. Students at such a level adopt different strategies to develop their criticality. This study analysed the basics of critical thinking skills, such as questioning, appraising, synthesising, and interpreting, and explored the strategies that master's-level English major students adopted to foster their critical thinking skills. For this, the study employed a qualitative approach and interviews as tools to collect data. The data were collected from five master's-level English major students of Tribhuvan University using qualitative interviews. The data were categorised, codified, and analysed under qualitative themes. The discussion showed that critical thinking is a cognitive process and has sub-skills that build the core of higher-order thinking skills. Likewise, the study found that university-level English major students employed strategies to promote their critical thinking skills such as critical reading, questioning, metacognitive activities, comparison and contrast, collaboration and cooperative learning, concept mapping, and self-reflection.