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Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective

This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengthening English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ critical thinking skills. The increasing unemployment rates may not be due to insufficient vacancies in the labor market, but graduates’ lack of the g...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Algouzi, Sami, Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah, Nazim, Mohd
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37856514
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293273
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author Algouzi, Sami
Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah
Nazim, Mohd
author_facet Algouzi, Sami
Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah
Nazim, Mohd
author_sort Algouzi, Sami
collection PubMed
description This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengthening English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ critical thinking skills. The increasing unemployment rates may not be due to insufficient vacancies in the labor market, but graduates’ lack of the general abilities deemed vital to meet the labor market needs. With employability in mind, this study reiterates that graduates should ideally be advanced specialists, critical researchers, creative initiators, and active communicators to be more competitive and contribute to the prosperity of their nation. Therefore, this research employs a quasi-experimental design (time series design) to investigate how effectively students’ critical thinking skills are enriched using a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram. Studies in this respect, regarding the Saudi EFL context, are limited. Therefore, this research employed a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram on learning critical thinking skills for EFL students majoring in English or Translation. The data collection included a pre-and post-test on critical thinking skills and a semi-structured interview. The findings showed that students improved their critical thinking skills due to the training program compared to their performance before the treatment at a low level. Besides, the participants evaluated learning critical thinking skills from thinking ways, feelings, benefits, motivation, challenges and problems, and suggestions. In light of the findings, recommendations were presented.
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spelling pubmed-105866352023-10-20 Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective Algouzi, Sami Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah Nazim, Mohd PLoS One Research Article This research project bridges the gap between Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs by strengthening English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ critical thinking skills. The increasing unemployment rates may not be due to insufficient vacancies in the labor market, but graduates’ lack of the general abilities deemed vital to meet the labor market needs. With employability in mind, this study reiterates that graduates should ideally be advanced specialists, critical researchers, creative initiators, and active communicators to be more competitive and contribute to the prosperity of their nation. Therefore, this research employs a quasi-experimental design (time series design) to investigate how effectively students’ critical thinking skills are enriched using a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram. Studies in this respect, regarding the Saudi EFL context, are limited. Therefore, this research employed a video-mediated self-study program through Telegram on learning critical thinking skills for EFL students majoring in English or Translation. The data collection included a pre-and post-test on critical thinking skills and a semi-structured interview. The findings showed that students improved their critical thinking skills due to the training program compared to their performance before the treatment at a low level. Besides, the participants evaluated learning critical thinking skills from thinking ways, feelings, benefits, motivation, challenges and problems, and suggestions. In light of the findings, recommendations were presented. Public Library of Science 2023-10-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10586635/ /pubmed/37856514 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293273 Text en © 2023 Algouzi et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Algouzi, Sami
Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah
Nazim, Mohd
Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective
title Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective
title_full Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective
title_fullStr Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective
title_short Enhancing EFL students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: EFL graduates and labor market in perspective
title_sort enhancing efl students’ critical thinking skills using a technology-mediated self-study approach: efl graduates and labor market in perspective
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37856514
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293273
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