Counselor for Public Affairs Gives
Plenary Lecture on Critical Thinking

February 18, 2008

Counselor for Public Affairs, Thomas Miller, delivered the final plenary lecture at a English teaching conference at Eastern Mediterranean University on February 18 to approximately 100 participants. Mr. Miller described how one could teach critical thinking skills even to low level learners if one managed to control content. Rather than overwheleming students with large amounts of text, Miller recommended mining the same text or similar texts with tasks of increasing intellectual sophistication. Miller described Grabe and Stoller’s (1997) Six T’s approach as a flexible means of using already-learned language at increasingly demanding intellectual levels even with relatively simple texts. This helps students revise their language and consolidate their knowledge while engaging in intellectually challenging tasks.