Language learning histories: an introduction to critical thinking

Language learning histories are often used in the classroom to encourage students to reflect on their individual learning styles and strategies. The narrow focus on the individual's learning behaviour, however, tends to de-contextualise the learning experience. This article argues that locating language learning histories in specific societal, political and historical circumstances can also be an effective learning and teaching tool to develop critical thinking skills. To illustrate, the article examines a course in critical thinking which the author developed and delivered to ELICOS students studying at the Swinburne University English Language Centre in 2005. The first part of the article briefly examines some of the theoretical underpinnings of the two core components of the course: language learning histories and critical thinking in the context of English for Academic Purposes. The second part is a narrative covering the author's and the author's students' efforts to put theory into practice. The author concludes that the course was reasonably successful in making explicit naturalised notions of English as an international language and in raising awareness of wider historical and socio-cultural contexts in which English is learned. It fell short of the author's aim of challenging power relationships on both a societal and an individual level