STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING IN EFL CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

Critical thinking is one of the essential higher-order thinking skills in 21st-century learning. This study aims to describe the stages of classroom discussion that demonstrate students' critical thinking, to analyze the levels of critical thinking based on Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, and to describe how students express critical thinking both cognitively and linguistically. This study used a qualitative approach through classroom observation and in depth interviews with five sixthsemester students of the English Education Study Program at Medan State University. The results showed that critical thinking appeared in all stages of discussion, with the implementation stage being the most dominant (17 occurrences). Students demonstrated Evaluating as a dominant level (45.6%) from six levels of thinking: remembering (2.4%), understanding (5.6%), applying (4%), analyzing (17.6%), evaluating (45.6%), and creating (24.8%). These results showed development from simply remembering to creating original ideas and innovative solutions. Critical thinking patterns were evident through clarification, analysis or comparison, evaluation, and the formation of solutions or ideas. Linguistically, students expressed critical thinking through the use of expressions
such as I think, in my opinion, I agree, I disagree, I assume, I mean, and I don't really think to express reasons, negotiate meaning, and express judgments. On the whole, students have achieved a high level of thinking that reflects cognitive maturity and linguistic awareness in EFL classroom discussions