Challenging the Status Quo: Critical Thinking Skills Integration in the EFL Curriculum of Young Learners: Critical Thinking Skills Integration in the EFL Curriculum of Young Learners

This study aimed to explore the level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of the Omani English
language curriculum of young learners. The study implemented a content analysis checklist that was based on the six
critical thinking skills which were agreed upon by a group of international critical thinking experts and declared in
the Delphi Report that was published by the American Philosophical Association (APA). The two textbooks of grade
four, second semester (4B) beside the Teacher’s Book, were utilized as the sample of this analysis. Results of the
study showed a low level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of these textbooks as these tasks made up
only (35.55%) of all the tasks in the textbooks. In addition, the self-examination subskill was highly represented
compared with the other critical thinking subskills (20. 81%). Moreover, results showed that four of the critical
thinking subskills (detecting arguments, analyzing arguments, presenting arguments, and self-correction) were
absent from the tasks of both textbooks. Based on these findings several implications were addressed.