Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 13 No. 06 (2026)
International Multidisciplinary Journal for Research & Development

Articles

FROM PERSONAL RESPONSE TO REASONED ARGUMENT: SCAFFOLDING CRITICAL THINKING IN COMMUNICATIVE WRITING

Published 2026-06-07

  • Urishev Abdumajid

Urishev Abdumajid
Uzbekistan state world languages university

Abstract

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has long privileged fluency, interaction, and the negotiation of meaning, yet it has been criticised for paying insufficient attention to the higher-order reasoning that academic and professional contexts increasingly demand. This article argues that the writing classroom is a particularly fertile site for cultivating critical thinking within a communicative framework, provided that instruction deliberately moves learners along a continuum that begins with personal response and culminates in reasoned argument. Drawing on sociocultural theory, models of the writing process, and research on second language argumentation, the article proposes a staged, scaffolded pedagogy in which teacher support is gradually withdrawn as learners internalise the dispositions and skills of critical writing. It outlines concrete instructional strategies—structured questioning, source engagement, claim–evidence–reasoning frameworks, counterargument, peer review, and reflective revision—and considers issues of feedback, assessment, and the local educational context. The discussion suggests that critical thinking and communicative competence are complementary rather than competing goals, and that scaffolding offers a principled means of integrating them.

Keywords

critical thinking, communicative language teaching, academic writing, scaffolding, argumentation

PDF

References

  1. Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 71–94.
  2. Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
  3. Davidson, B. W. (1998). Comments on Dwight Atkinson's “A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL”: A case for critical thinking in the English language classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 32(1), 119–123.
  4. Ennis, R. H. (1985). A logical basis for measuring critical thinking skills. Educational Leadership, 43(2), 44–48.
  5. Facione, P. A. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction (The Delphi Report). California Academic Press.
  6. Ferris, D. R. (2003). Response to student writing: Implications for second language students. Lawrence Erlbaum.
  7. Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), 365–387.
  8. Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 53(4), 449–455.
  9. Hyland, K. (2003). Second language writing. Cambridge University Press.
  10. Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16(3), 148–164.
  11. Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (2006). Feedback on second language students' writing. Language Teaching, 39(2), 83–101.
  12. Kuhn, D. (1991). The skills of argument. Cambridge University Press.
  13. Liu, F., & Stapleton, P. (2014). Counterargumentation and the cultivation of critical thinking in argumentative writing: Investigating washback from a high-stakes test. System, 45, 117–128.
  14. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  15. Stapleton, P. (2001). Assessing critical thinking in the writing of Japanese university students: Insights about assumptions and content familiarity. Written Communication, 18(4), 506–548.
  16. Toulmin, S. E. (2003). The uses of argument (Updated ed.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1958)
  17. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
  18. Wingate, U. (2012). “Argument!” Helping students understand what essay writing is about. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(2), 145–154.
  19. Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.