The Effect of Immersing Critical Thinking in University Classrooms: English Language Learners’ Critical Thinking, Writing Skill, and Classroom Climate

In the context of globalization and multiculturalism, education systems are responsible for creating a supportive environment that fosters learners' growth in life skills and academic competencies. Accordingly, the current study integrated a critical thinking program (3Es) into a BA English language writing course, intending to improve learners’ critical thinking, writing skill, and classroom climate in the English language context of Iran. Accordingly, two intact writing classrooms were assigned to the control and experimental groups, each containing thirty intermediate participants aged 23 to 34. Two classes were held equally in terms of the instructor and the instructional material (Longman Academic Writing Series 3). The only difference between the two groups was exposing the experimental group’s participants to the critical thinking program (based on Bakhtiari Moghadam et al.’s framework, 2021), following 3 stages of exposure, exploration, and evaluation. In this quasi-experimental study, the data were collected by employing Honey's critical thinking questionnaire (2004), Fraser et al.’s (1996) classroom climate questionnaire, and the Longman writing tests. After implementing the critical thinking program for over four months, the data were analyzed, and the results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in critical thinking, writing skill, and classroom climate level of participants in the experimental group. The study showed that English language learning is not the only aim of English language classrooms. Learning the language can become a means by which English learners develop academically and critically.