Critical Thinking and Intercultural Competence: Review, Use, and Classification of the 21st Century Skills in Intercultural EFL Education

Abstract

We all live in a globalised world today, and even the smallest interactions taking place in our daily lives can now take place in a global level thanks to the advancements in telecommunication facilities. To keep up with these intercultural interactions, whether virtually or in real life, people now need some abilities for effective communication and cooperation, and 21st Century Skills are a way to address this need. Among these skills, critical thinking – clear and rational thinking, might be a helpful way of approaching issues arising from intercultural communication and guiding learners in developing their intercultural communication and interaction skills. Both of these competences are used in the area of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), in textbooks, materials, and assessment tools. This article review aims at scanning the literature to find traces of different uses of the skill of critical thinking and intercultural competence in the EFL context to tackle issues resulting from intercultural communication or develop language learners’ intercultural competence. The study also intends to classify these uses by analysing similar patterns in the studies investigated. The review explores 14 studies discussing these two competences in the EFL context and determines three distinct approaches by the researchers.