Phương thức QRCV nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng tư duy phê phán trong học tập tiếng Anh chuyên ngành
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QRCVAPPROACH TO ENHANCING
CRITICALTHINKING SKILLS IN ESPLEARNING
Ri Chung Sim*, Kang Chol Su, Kim Yong Hyong
Faculty of Finance, Kim Il Sung University,
Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Received 22 January 2021
Revised 7 March 2021; Accepted 18 July 2021
Abstract: The term ‘Critical Thinking’ increasingly appears in education and language teaching. It would
be among key skills for any 21st century learner (Hughes, 2014). Recently, considerable attention has been paid to
critical teaching approaches in studying foreign languages. It is usually difficult for students to acquire financial
knowledge in English even though they have already passed a basic English course in non-English speaking
countries. We introduce the QRCV approach for enhancing learners’ CT skills so that learners can overcome
challenges in ESP learning. The main principle of the QRCV approach is heuristic Questioning, Reasoning,
Considering the issues from different angles, and Visualizing in learning ESP. Our study aims at validating the
QRCV approach in enhancing learners’ CT skills in ESP learning. Participants were 72 students learning finance
in English. During a semester, the experimental group (n=36) took the financial English course through the QRCV
approach while the control group took it in a conventional approach. The self-developed instrument, Critical
Thinking Skills Test for Financial English (CTSTFE) was used as a pretest and posttest, and their results were
scored by instructors in accordance with relevant criteria for CT skills. The findings indicate that the experimental
group outperformed the control group in the course achievement, especially in the dimension of Considering from
multiple-perspectives. Implications for applying QRCV to other ESP courses in general are suggested.
Keyword: critical thinking, ESP, financial English, questioning, reasoning
1. Introduction*
The emergence of a knowledge-
employers want universities to place a
stronger emphasis on developing critical
thinking
skills
(AAC&U,
2011).
based economy over a once dominant
manufacturing economy means that positive
outcomes are dependent on critical thinking
(CT) abilities (Abrami et al., 2008; Ahuna,
Tinnesz & Keiner, 2014; Meepian &
Wannapiroon, 2013). Developing CT skills
needed for success in this era beyond the
classroom has been recognized as a primary
goal of colleges and universities (Astin,
1993; Gellin, 2003; Stedman & Adams,
2012). Many chief academic officers
identify critical thinking as one of the most
important skills for students and not a few
Universities would fail their students if they
can pass through to their junior or senior
years by relying on memorizing facts which
are setting them up for failure in upper level
courses or in a profession where analysis and
evaluation of information is essential.
In order for students to use critical
thinking skills in their professional careers,
they must first be taught how to develop
those skills since CT skills are not inherent
and they are developed through time and
experience (Hackworth, 2009).
* Corresponding author.
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As ESP (English for Specific
Purposes) is mainly for learners’
professional careers while EGP (English for
General Purposes) for their everyday life, it
requires learners to be equipped with CT
skills for their future careers more keenly
than EGP. While students learn both English
and subject-matter content in ESP courses,
they need to be equipped with not only
linguistic skills but also subject-oriented
thinking skills. ESP is distinguished from
EGP in the point that it is rooted from EGP
and is in combination with a specific
domain. Domain – the subject matter –
required critical thinking more keenly than
language itself. In the financial English
course (one branch of ESP) learners are
taught EFL and finance as the subject-matter
content. For their university achievement
and future professional success, they choose
to apply an economic or financial way of
thinking in their course rather than acquiring
the norms and principles merely by rote-
retention. To think like an economist, they
must acquire CT skills since economic or
financial matters are sophisticated enough to
be embodied with elegant decision-making
and problem-solving abilities.
that of linguistic skills. Such challenges
could be overcome when students are
encouraged to be active and independent
learners for domain-specific background
knowledge rather than passive and
dependent acquirers and critical thinking is
central to this.
Furthermore, it is more vital for non-
English students in the course of ESP since
domain-specific materials in English do not
always match with their mother tongue
equivalents easily, and that also requires
critical thinking skills. By taking charge of
the critical thinking process, they can
develop an understanding of what they do
not know about a particular subject, and
make better decisions as a result (Brian,
2005).
In consideration of the domain-
specific features of financial English, to
improve students’ CT skills, effective
teaching approaches must be applied, and
the QRCV approach is one of those. This
study will prove the QRCV approach’s
usefulness for enhancing CT skills in
financial English learning.
2. TheoreticalBasesfortheQRCVApproach
In our practice, the financial English
course is acknowledged as more difficult
than the EGP course to students. Etymology-
visualization techniques have been used to
help them overcome such difficulties in
acquiring finance-specific English terms
(Chung-sim, 2019). There still remain some
other challenges in comprehending financial
texts, preparing a presentation or writing an
academic paper on financial topics in
English. As for financial texts, students
merely attempt to translate their literal
meaning into their mother tongue without
grasping its content meaning. This also
prevents them from thinking in a more
rational way as an economist. We see these
challenges are normally connected to the
lack of domain-specific knowledge, not to
Teaching critical thinking is
important for learning and social practice
and teachers around the world are
encouraged to integrate those skills in
teaching. However, little is known about
integrating critical thinking skills in foreign
language instruction (Lili, 2016). E1-Soufi
and See (2019) tested a range of approaches
to enhancing the CT skills of English
language learners and found that research in
this field is still rather immature and more
large-scale, replicable robust studies are
needed to advance the field. Yet there is no
study even on the relationship between CT
skills and ESP learning, so we intended to
conduct a study on effective teaching
approaches for ESP learning by taking
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advantages of relevant abilities for CT in
general and domain-specific sub-skills. The
abilities or behaviors identified as relevant to
critical thinking include asking and
answering questions for clarification (Ennis,
1985); defining terms (Ennis, 1985);
identifying assumptions (Ennis, 1985; Paul,
1992); interpreting and explaining (Facione,
1990); reasoning verbally, especially in
relation to concepts of likelihood and
uncertainty (Halpern, 1998); predicting
(Tindal & Nolet, 1995); and seeing both
sides of an issue (Willingham, 2007).
Keeping in mind that CT is defined
as “learning how to ask and answer
questions of analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation” (Paul, 1985), it includes two
interrelated processes, including identifying
and challenging assumptions, and imagining
and examining others (Brookfield, 1991).
Identifying and challenging assumptions can
be received by questioning and reasoning,
imagining by visualizing, examining others
by considering from different perspectives.
‘Socratic questioning’ still heavily
influences many approaches to education to
this day and is certainly one skill required of
effective critical thinkers (Hughes, 2014),
which enables us to integrate questioning as
one element of effective CT teaching
approach for ESP domain-specific learning.
Meanwhile, Hughes (2014) suggests
20 practical activities for integrating CT in
the language classrooms such as critical
questioning, reason generator, seeing things
from another point of view, and supporting
evidence, etc. Kanik (2010) urges that
questioning methods and considering issues
from different angles are main tools for
getting students to think critically in the
social sciences course. Multiple researchers
highlight the importance of questioning in
various forms for integrating CT skills in
their courses (Ritchhart & Perkins, 2008;
Day, 2011; Arend, 2009; Paul & Elder,
2006). Bailin et al. (1999) states that
domain-specific knowledge is indispensable
to CT.
Answering a question requires
reasoning. Reasoning aims at finding a
solution or making a choice. Reasoning
results in a simple decision, an interference,
a judgment, and/or a conclusion (Brian,
2005). The fact that critical thinkers take the
time to find out what they do not know with
the methodical analysis of reasoning
indicates that we should integrate reasoning
as another element of effective CT teaching
approach for ESP learning.
Well-balanced reasoning can be
achieved free from bias, which requires
thinkers to put themselves in alternative
points of view. Critical thinkers take charge
of their point of view by bringing it out into
the open through active study and analysis
on situations from different perspectives
(Brian, 2005). We integrate considering
from different perspectives into the other
element of effective CT teaching approach
for ESP learning.
We introduce three main categories,
namely
questioning,
reasoning
and
considering new aspects among the relevant
CT abilities and other CT teaching
approaches in general and in EFL learning.
We also combine these three categories with
the aid of visualization which is regarded as
a valuable tool for education to produce the
QRCV approach. QRCV stands for
questioning, reasoning, considering issues
from different angles and visualization.
These four combined can be a helpful
teaching approach for comparing, analyzing
and evaluating financial English texts, which
are necessary for getting critical thinking
skills in ESP learning.
Questioning,
Reasoning
and
Considering from different perspectives are
good elements for acquiring CT skills, which
would be facilitated with visualization. We
know English proverbs like ‘a picture is
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170
worth a thousand words’ and ‘seeing is
believing’, both of which demonstrate the
high communicative power of visual signals.
Therefore, in language teaching-learning,
like teaching-learning other subjects, the use
of visualization is highly encouraged. A new
vocabulary item, for instance, can be
instantly understood by language learners if
accompanied with a picture showing what it
really is. Visualizing the text can greatly
improve reading comprehension. Since it is
text and expand their perspectives by
building up critical thinking. The QRCV
approach effectively helps learners develop
CT skills by promoting deeper thinking of
cause/effect relationships, parts-whole
relationships, the reliability of sources, and
prediction (Nold, 2017).
As domain-specific CT skills lead to
domain-general CT skills and vice versa,
learners could have a critical attitude not
only towards the financial text in English but
also other subject matters. Their learning
behavior might turn themselves from passive
consumers into active producers of
knowledge through the QRCV approach.
most
effective
and
essential
to
comprehension,
understanding
and
application to optimize visualization ability
which is an intrinsic potential of human
being, visualization is given great attention.
Also, concerning learning, VAK (Visual,
Auditory, and Kinesthetic) has been
identified as various preferred styles by each
individual: some can learn better by seeing
(V) while some can learn best by merely
listening (A), and still others can study best
by moving and actions (K). In their studies,
Dunn and Dunn (1972) conclude that ‘many
in our cultural framework are visual
learners’ whereas Goleman (1986) said that
‘94% of population utilizes visualization
well’.
We apply the QRCV approach in two
steps, before class and in class. In the 1st step,
students are given instructions with relevant
financial English materials before class.
They are required to make Questions as
critical as possible to instructors or their
colleagues. Normally they are instructed to
observe the text carefully to find odd things
in it. Then they should try to do their own
Reasoning to answer such questions. While
doing their assignments, they try to Consider
the issues from all possible sides. And after
finishing their assignment according to
instructions, they should draw a text map or
sometimes a concept map so as to Visualize
the context wholly or partially.
For these reasons, in education of
finance in English, several visualization
methods can be adopted to improve reading
and application ability.
Instructors collect their assignments,
summarize and classify the questions before
class. They build up their own instruction
plan for each lesson along with a questioning
routine to carry on during class.
In the 2nd step, instructors put
questions as tough as possible to the students
on the given text. They find themselves
involved to answer the questions by
reasoning with given tips from instructors. In
this case, they are generally asked to
conclude a well-balanced judgment or
answers with the help of instructors who
enlighten their point of view to consider the
As for the QRCV approach, QRC is
vital for bringing up CT skills while V
facilitates learners to follow QRC. If QR
provides milestones for CT routine, CV
provides a van to shorten the routine. If QR
provides raw materials for CT food, CV
provides seasoning and flavor for it.
The QRCV approach can facilitate
the way of thinking for financial English
learners to have critical eyes on the materials
they used to absorb merely by translating.
This also enables them to see hidden
meaning or invent their own new ideas, or
uncover and explain deeper meaning of the
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text from several aspects. Often a prepared
text (Appendix 1) or concept maps are given
to the students by instructors to facilitate
their comprehension of the text. And more
often instructors do these mapping promptly
in consideration of collected ideas from
students during the class. In practice, various
kinds of financial text in English often
require the application of QRCV approach
wholly or partially combined and sometimes
singly.
Table 1
Composition of Participants Based on Their
Proficiency in English And Major
Average
terminal exam group
result (marks)
Control
Experimental
group
A (8.5~10)
B (7.5~8.4)
C (6~7.5)
3 (students) 3 (students)
27
6
27
6
For a semester, the control group go
through the ESP course in a traditional way
i.e. by explaining them in English as in
dictionary and acquiring financial English
terms mechanically, L1 word for L2 word,
or vice versa shown in bilingual English-
Korean dictionaries and merely translating
the text into Korean for their comprehension
and while experimental group is taught in the
new way i.e. through the QRCV approach.
We are going to prove that the
QRCV approach is helpful to overcome
difficulties in ESP learning to produce better
faculty achievements by enhancing students’
CT skills in the subsequent sections of the
paper.
3. The Study
The present study aims at proving the
effectiveness of the QRCV approach in the
course achievement and in enhancing critical
thinking skills in ESP learning. The
following research questions are posed.
Then after
a
semester, the
participants were examined to evaluate their
critical thinking skills to deal with financial
English texts.
Question 1: Can the QRCV approach
improve ESP course achievement by
overcoming its inherent challenges?
Instruments
There exist many standardized
assessments including the California Critical
Thinking Skills Test (Facione, 1990), the
Cornell Critical Thinking Tests (Ennis &
Millman, 2005), and the Watson-Glaser
Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson &
Glaser, 1980). Such assessments utilize
multiple-choice items designed to assess
component critical thinking skills, such as
deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning,
drawing conclusions, evaluating arguments,
and so forth. These assessments are not
confined to domain-specific areas but to
domain-general areas. Therefore, we
introduce CT assessment specific to ESP
(herein financial English) as an instrument
for the current study.
Question 2: Can the QRCV approach
enhance CT skills in ESP learning?
Participants
After Basic EGP course, all the
students in our University take an ESP
course according to their majors. Students of
Finance Faculty go through the financial
English course. We divide 72 participants at
the average age of 22 into two groups: the
control group (36 participants) and the
experimental group (36 participants).
Proficiency in English and major subjects
between the two groups was found to be
similar, at the beginning of the project, in
accordance with their previous terminal
exam results.
This assessment (Critical Thinking
Skills Test for Finance in English -
CTSTFE) consists of 7 types of problems:
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1st filling in the blank with appropriate
words, 2nd choosing the right answer for the
blank, 3rd matching blanks with appropriate
words, 4th deciding true or false, 5th
rearranging the parts to complete a sentence,
6th interpreting into mother tongue, 7th
finding solutions as many as possible.
(Appendix 2)
should either affirm or deny the statement. In
three pairs of No 1, 2 and 3, the control
participants are asked to agree with the
statements
while
the
experimental
subgroups are to disagree with them and vice
versa in the other three pairs of No 4, 5 and
6. Three examiners are invited to rank the
above 12 subgroups with some criteria for
CT skills (Table 4). Each subgroup is given
10 minutes in advance to build up their
argumentation. Then each pair starts to
defend their arguments for the given
statement. After 3 minutes, they should stop
their arguments and examiners judge their
performance (Table 3). Also, the
experimental participants are particularly
examined how much this QRCV approach
encourages their attitude towards ESP
learning in consideration of some useful
elements needed for critical thinkers such as
flexibility, disposition, and motivation by
questionnaire (Table 5). All the relevant
results above are manifested in the finding
section of this paper.
The content of problems are
extracted from relevant glossaries, journals,
magazines, newspaper articles or other
reference books. While comprehending,
analyzing and guessing the context,
examinees collect candidate answers to
problems and sort out the most reasonable
one. Problems of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th types
aim at checking CT skills from financial
aspects more than linguistic aspects, and
vice versa for those of 3rd, 5th, 6th types.
Procedures
Both
the
control
and
the
experimental groups are given the pretest
and the posttest with CTSTF. As for the
pretest before the semester, the control
participants record the average marks of 4.7
while the experimental earns the average of
4.6, which tells that their CT skills are
almost similar at the beginning of the study.
4. Findings and Discussions
After the treatment semester, the
average marks per group show that the
experimental participants overwhelm the
control ones in total. As for the 6th type
problem (Appendix 2), we find a big gap
between the two groups (9.1 and 4.7) with
the question of which requires a more critical
way of thinking. This indicates that the
QRCV approach can enhance critical
thinking skills for financial English learning
especially in the respect of considering
issues from different perspectives. The 1st to
6th problems are almost made from new
materials not mentioned in textbooks or
teaching materials. The experimental results
(7.5) are higher than the control ones (6.4),
which indicates that the QRCV approach
could help the learners overcome difficulty
in comprehending financial context.
After the treatment semester,
participants of the two groups go through the
posttest equally with CTSTFE. According to
the exam results (Table 2), 36 participants in
each group are ranked in order from the
highest to the lowest, and they are clustered
again with 6 members in each subgroup. All
of 6 subgroups in each group are ranked
from No 1 to No 6 in accordance with their
exam performance.
No 1 subgroups of the control and
experimental groups form Pair 1. Like this,
we form from Pair 2 to Pair 6. Then we
conduct
an
interesting
debate-type
experiment for assessing CT skills in ESP
learning. We put forward some statements
(Appendix 3). The subgroups in each pair
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Table 2
Average Posttest Result per Examinee With CTSTFE
Finance-focused problems
Linguistic-focused problems
Average marks
1st
2nd
8.2
7.4
4th
6th
3rd
5th
7th
Experimental group
7.3
5.9
7
9.1
4.7
6.9
6.7
5.4
6.9
8.5
8.4
7.5
6.4
Control group
4.8
Table 3
Who Successfully Persuades its Counterparty in Debates?
Pairs for debate Control subgroup
Experimental subgroup
No 1
No 2
No 3
No 4
No 5
No 6
pros
pros
pros
cons
cons
cons
<
<
<
<
<
>
cons
cons
cons
pros
pros
pros
As the table indicates, five
experimental subgroups defeat their
counterparties and only one control
subgroup defeats its counterparty. This
shows that the QRCV approach can enhance
learners’ persuasive and argumentative
abilities which are inevitably accompanied
by CT skills.
Table 4
Rank in CT Skills for 12 Experimental and Control Subgroups
Control subgroups
Experimental subgroups
Rank in the following
criteria*
1
2
3
4
5
6
∑
1
2
3
4
5
6
∑
Questioning quality
Reasoning power
4
7
5
3
7
5
9
9
11 10 46
10 11 45
1
4
2
2
3
1
6
6
8
8
12 32
12 33
Fairness (multi-side
consideration)
4
2
6
8
10 12 42
3
1
5
7
9
11 36
Relevance
6
1
1
4
3
4
2
6
6
7
8
9
9
12 40
39
5
2
2
3
5
3
1
4
5
8
7
8
10 11 38
11 10 39
Clarity in expression
Collaboration
Total ∑
12
9
10 11 41
7
12 37
23 21 32 50 62 65 253 17 16 19 42 53 68 215
10 11 44 12 34
Rank in Total
5
4
6
8
2
1
3
7
9
*Criteria for assessing CT skills are established by examiners in consideration of various CT standards.
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Examiners rank 12 experimental and
control subgroups in the order from 1 to 12
in accordance with some criteria such as
questioning quality, reasoning power,
fairness and relevance. Collaboration is
added to the criteria as this is one element for
displaying CT skills. Each subgroup is
ranked according to each criterion. Each
rank value is added up to be total which
shows the sum of ranks. The bigger the sum
is, the lower the rank is.
criteria, the experimental rank is much
higher than the control rank, which indicates
that the QRCV approach is more effective in
enhancing the skill of considering the issues
from multiple perspectives.
Critical thinking may also support
and be supported by motivation.(Emily,
2012) The disposition to think critically has
been defined as the “consistent internal
motivation to engage problems and make
decisions by using critical thinking”
(Facione, 2000). Thus, student motivation is
viewed as a necessary precondition for the
exercise of critical thinking skills and
abilities.
It is found that experimental group’s
rank (215) is higher than control one’s (253)
except in the criterion of Clarity in
expression (39). As for Fairness (multi-side
consideration) comparing it with the other
Table 5
How do QRCV Participants Feel Improvements in Their Learning Attitude?
Most willing More willing Willing Not willing
How many (%) How many (%) How many (%) How many (%)
Flexibility
Disposition
Motivation
7 (19.4%)
4 (11.1%)
19 (52.8%)
16 (44.4%)
8 (22.2%)
11 (30.6%)
9 (25.0%)
17 (47.2%)
5 (13.9%)
4 (11.1%)
7 (19.4%)
1 (2.8%)
The table shows that the QRCV
approach substantially enhances learners’
motivation. All the findings above proves
that the QRCV approach facilitates ESP
learning, and helps learners overcome
intrinsic difficulties by making them
independent learners.
ability to their students (Sheybani & Miri,
2019). Instructors should be critical thinkers
to produce such quality questions to bring up
students to be critical thinkers. The
instructors who received specific training on
methods to teach critical thinking are more
effective in developing critical thinking in
students than instructors who had no prior
training (Abrami et al., 2008). It is further
required to develop an effective training
program for instructors to acquire methods
for teaching CT skills in ESP courses.
What is most important in the QRCV
approach is Questioning, as the quality of
questions with relevant reasons would
determine the success or failure of the
approach to enlighten or guide the learners
in the direction of critical thinking. These
questions would be better to be accompanied
with standards of reason involving clarity,
While the QRCV is derived from
domain-general CT abilities and applied to
domain-specific fields, financial English in
this case, one branch of ESP, and it works
quite well, we also suggest the applicability
of the QRCV approach to other domain-
specific ESP learning. It can generally apply
to language learning with specific domain
for this approach is generalized and
relevance,
logic,
accuracy,
depth,
significance, precision, breadth, and fairness
as suggested by Brian (2005), which mainly
depends on the quality of instructors since it
seems obvious that teachers first need to be
critical thinkers to be able to teach this
VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
175
employers’ view. Association of American
Colleges and Universities.
extracted from the general sub skills and
activities for language classroom. But this
should be creatively applied specific to
target domain. If necessary, the QRCV could
produce variations suitable for target
domains. This implies that it can apply to
other ESP courses.
Ahuna, K. K., Tinnesz, C. G., & Kiener, M. (2014).
A new era of critical thinking in professional
programs.
Transformative
Dialogues:
Teaching & Learning Journal, 7(3), 1-9.
Alwehaibi, H. (2012). Novel program to promote
critical thinking among higher education
students: Empirical study from Saudi
Arabia. Asian Social Science, 8(11), 193-204.
5. Conclusions
Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college: Four
critical years revisited. Jossey-Bass.
The importance of critical thinking
skills has long been aware of as an outcome
of student learning (Emily, 2012). However,
little is known about integrating CT skills in
ESP learning. ESP learning requires two
skills; linguistic skill for English on the one
hand and CT skill for specific subjects on the
other. Financial English, as one branch of
ESP, needs CT skills for learners to acquire
domain-specific background knowledge.
Brookfield, S. D. (1991). Developing critical
thinkers: Challenging adults to explore
alternative ways of thinking and acting.
Open University Press.
Egan, B. D. (2005). The role of critical thinking in
effective decision making [White Paper].
Global
Knowledge.
E1-Soufi, N., & See, B. H. (2019). Does explicit
teaching of critical thinking improve critical
thinking skills of English language learners
in higher education? A critical review of
causal evidence. Studies in Educational
Evaluation, 60, 140-162.
We assume that learners can get
successful achievement in their ESP course
and further professional careers when they
are equipped with economic ways of
thinking that can be developed by CT skills
in the field of finance in English. We see
Questioning, Reasoning, and Considering
the issue from multiple perspectives as main
elements for enhancing CT skills and
combine these three elements with
Visualization which has been recognized as
an effective teaching tool to produce the
QRCV approach for effective ESP learning.
Ennis, R. H. (1985). A logical basis for measuring
critical thinking skills. Educational
Leadership, 43(2), 44–48.
Ennis, R. H., & Millman, J. (2005). Cornell critical
thinking test: Level X (5th ed.). The Critical
Thinking Co.™
Facione, P. A. (2000). The disposition toward critical
thinking: Its character, measurement, and
relation to critical thinking skill. Informal
Logic, 20(1), 61-84.
The study demonstrates that the
QRCV approach is effective in enhancing
learners’ CT skills particularly in multiple-
side consideration. The learning attitude of
experimental participants has also proved to
be positive towards ESP courses taught in
the QRCV approach. All these results
indicate the QRCV approach can enhance
learners’ course achievement by enhancing
their CT skills and overcoming inherent
challenges in this course.
Gellin, A. (2003). The effect of undergraduate student
involvement on critical thinking: A meta-
analysis of the literature 1991-2000. Journal
of College Student Development, 44(6), 746-
762.
Hackworth, R. M. (2009). Radiation science
educators’ perception of obstacles in the use
of critical thinking [Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation]. The Ohio State University.
Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for
transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills,
structure training, and metacognitive
monitoring. American Psychologist, 53(4),
449-455.
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Appendix 1
Sample Text: Commercial Banking
Commercial banks are businesses that trade in money. They receive and hold deposits,
pay money according to customers’ instructions, and lend money, etc. There are still some
people who do not have bank accounts. Traditionally, factory workers were paid wages in cash
on Fridays. Non-manual workers, however, usually receive a monthly salary in the form of a
cheque or a transfer paid directly into their bank account.
A current account (US: checking account) usually pays little or no interest, but allows
the holder to withdraw his or her cash with no restrictions. Deposit accounts (in the US also
called time or notice accounts) pay interest. They do not usually provide cheque (US: check)
facilities and notice is often required to withdraw money.
Standing orders and direct debits are ways of paying regular bills at regular intervals.
Banks offer both loans and overdrafts. A loan is a fixed sum of money, lent for a fixed period,
on which interest is paid; banks usually require some form of security or guarantee before
lending. An overdraft is an arrangement by which a customer can overdraw an account, i.e. run
up a debt to an agreed limit; interest on bank loan is calculated daily.
Banks make a profit from the spread or differential between the interest rates they pay
on deposits and those they charge on loans. British commercial banks lend to blue-chip
borrowers (big, secure companies) at the base rate. They are also able to lend more money than
they receive in deposits because depositors rarely withdraw all their money at the same time.
Because a commercial bank can lend most of the money deposited with it to other borrowers,
who in turn may lend it to another borrower, each sum of money deposited in a bank is
multiplied several times. To ensure the safety of the banking system, central banks impose
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reserve requirements, obliging commercial banks to deposit a certain amount of money with
the central bank at zero interest.
In order to optimize the return on their assets (loans), bankers have to find a balance
between yield and risk, and liquidity and different maturities, and to match these with their
liabilities. The maturity of a loan is how long it will last; the yield of a loan is its annual return
- how much money it pays - expressed as a percentage.
Application of the QRCV approach in class
“Commercial banks are businesses that trade in money. They receive and hold deposits,
pay money according to customers’ instructions, and lend money, etc.”
Q: Can you relate the meaning of trade to the main business of commercial banks?
Q: How can they normally earn profits by trade? Then how can commercial banks get
profits through trade in money?
“ Deposit accounts (in the US also called time or notice accounts) pay interest. They do
not usually provide cheque (US: check) facilities and notice is often required to withdraw
money.”
Q: Deposit accounts, time accounts and notice accounts are the same. But can we extract
the features of this type of account from its various names with identical meaning and different
appearance? (It’s deposited in bank for a certain length of time and notice is required before
withdrawal)
Q: When deposit accounts provide cheque facilities, what benefit or loss do commercial
banks get? (Cheque facilities do not allow commercial banks to use deposit accounts for a
certain period of time, so banks lose the opportunity of utilizing idle cash.)
“Standing orders and direct debits are ways of paying regular bills at regular intervals.”
Q: Is “standing orders” different from “direct debits” or not? (Both of them are identical
in meaning and disparate in appearance.)
Q: Where is B among A, B and C? (In the middle, on the right side of A and left side of
C. On the right from A’s perspective, on the left from C’s perspective, and in the middle from
the whole perspective.) This means the answer is different according to perspectives.
Q: Then who are the participants in periodic installment payment? (Customer and bank)
Q: What can you say about the periodic installment payment from the perspectives of
customer and bank respectively? Oxford Business Dictionary (2005) says as follows: ‘Standing
order’: an instruction that you give to a bank to pay somebody a fixed amount of money from
your account on the same day each week, month, etc. ‘Direct debit’: an instruction to your bank
to allow somebody else to take an amount of money from your account on a particular date,
especially to pay bills. The definitions say that a customer orders a bank to pay regular bills.
When you focus on ‘customer’, then it’s named ‘standing order’ (here ‘standing’ stands for
‘continuing’ or ‘regular’). When you focus on ‘bank’, then it’s named ‘direct debit’. (Bank
receives an order from a customer and directly debit his or her account.) Customers make orders
to the bank periodically and the bank receives orders and makes payments. Thus the customer
side is “standing order” and the bank side is “direct debit”.
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Figure 1
Visualization Aid ‘Standing Order’ & ‘Direct Debit’
“Banks offer both loans and overdrafts. A loan is a fixed sum of money, lent for a fixed
period, on which interest is paid; banks usually require some form of security or guarantee
before lending. An overdraft is an arrangement by which a customer can overdraw an account,
i.e. run up a debt to an agreed limit; interest on bank loan is calculated daily.”
Q: What’s the relationship between loans and overdrafts? (Overdraft is like a loan in
some aspects)
“Banks make a profit from the spread or differential between the interest rates they pay
on deposits and those they charge on loans. British commercial banks lend to blue-chip
borrowers (big, secure companies) at the base rate.”
Q: Can you find something unusual? (If a retailer sells merchandise at a wholesale price,
there is no profit. Likewise, if a commercial bank lends borrowers at base rate, it commits to a
non-profit transaction)
Q: Blue-chip means a large best known company which is considered a secure
investment. What do you think of being big and secure for making profit in this kind of
transaction? (Since being large means a great number of transactions and high level of cash
flow, there would be more bank commission. Stocks of secure business have relatively high
demand in the market, therefore, it has great possibility to be traded above the face value. Banks
can deal with issues of the stock to make additional profit. In other words, they give favorable
lending to reap some other benefits.
“Because a commercial bank can lend most of the money deposited with it to other
borrowers, who in turn may lend it to another borrower, each sum of money deposited in a bank
is multiplied several times. To ensure the safety of the banking system, central banks impose
reserve requirements, obliging commercial banks to deposit a certain amount of money with
the central bank at zero interest.”
Q: What are the keywords of the given sentences, which have first priority in the
sentence and can give the general meaning of the sentence without the rest of the words. (First
sentence – multiplied, Second sentence – reserve requirement)
Q: What is the relationship between two sentences? (The first sentence is the cause and
the second one is the effect.)
“In order to optimize the return on their assets (loans), bankers have to find a balance
between yield and risk, and liquidity and different maturities, and to match these with their
liabilities. ”
Q: Can you match the context with the following figure?
Figure 2
Visual-Aid Commercial Banking – Optimizing ROA.
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Note: Y&R: yield and risk, L&M: liquidity and maturities
Appendix 2: Sample Extract From CTSTFE
Question Type
Questions
1. Fill in the blank
with appropriate
words.
_______ is an amount of money paid regularly by the government or
company to someone who does not work anymore, for example because
they have reached the age when people stop working or because they are
ill.
Pension ______ is an amount of money that is invested and then used to
pay pensions. Its goal is to build up enough money to pay pensioners their
promised benefits.
2. Choose the right
answer for the blank.
Another attribute of a bond that influences its interest rate is its liquidity.
A liquid asset is one that can be a)__________and
b)___________converted into cash if the need arises. The c)__________
liquid an asset is, the more desirable it is (holding everything else
constant). Treasury bonds are the most liquid of all d)__________bonds;
because they are so widely traded, they are the easiest to sell quickly, and
the cost of selling them is low. e)_________ bonds are not as liquid
because fewer bonds for any one corporation are traded; thus it can be
costly to sell these bonds in an emergency because it might be hard to find
buyers quickly.
quickly, slowly
cheaply, expensively
more, less
long-term, short-term
corporate, blue-chip
3. Match the blank in
We use not only coins and dollar bills as ______ of payment, but also
each sentence with the cheques written on accounts held at banks, credit cards, debit cards,
appropriate word in
the following.
stored-value cards, and electric cash. Money has been _________ things at
different times, it has always been important to people and to the
economy. To understand the ______ of money in the economy, we must
understand exactly what money is. As the word money is used in everyday
conversation, it can mean many things, but to ______ it has a very specific
meaning. To avoid confusion, we must clarify how economists’ use the
word money ________ from conventional usage. Economists _______
money as anything that is generally accepted in payment for goods or
services or in the repayment of debts. Currency, consisting of dollar bills
and coins, clearly fits this definition and is one type of money.
Words: differs, define, means, different, effects, economists
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4. Determine True or
False.
It's not always convenient to trade by exchanging goods because you can't
always get what you want when you want it.
5. Rearrange the
following parts to
make up a complete
sentence.
The policy is, not a claim is covered, when determining whether or,
insurance company refer to, that both insured and, the written document.
6. Translate the
Marketing intermediaries constitute a distribution channel or a channel of
following context into distribution. The shortest channel exists in cases of direct marketing,
mother tongue
where the manufacturer sells directly to consumers, reaching them by
telephone or direct mail, or by way of its own sales reps. More common
are channels with a single intermediary-e.g. a sales agent or broker for
industrial goods, a retailer for consumer goods, an authorized dealer in the
automobile industry.
More complex channels add further intermediaries such as wholesalers,
and where goods are exported, very likely an agent as well.
7. Find solutions from Did Robinson Crusoe on an uninhabited island need money or not? Why?*
many perspectives.
* Examinees are required to analyze the question critically and find criteria to classify the direction of
the solution as many as possible.
Appendix 3: Statements to be Debated
No
Statements
Con. subgroups
Exp. subgroups
1
When money is tight, interest rates rise, because
commercial banks have to borrow at a higher rate on
the inter-bank market.
should argue that should argue that
these statements
are right.
these statements
are wrong. *
2
3
When money is tight, credit falls, because people and
businesses borrow less at higher rates.
When money is tight, output falls, because with less
consumption, firms produce less.
4
When money is tight, unemployment rises, because
companies are producing and selling less, and so
require less labor.
should argue that should argue that
these statements
are wrong.
these statements
are right.
5
6
When money is tight, inflation falls, because there is
less money in circulation.
When money is tight, the exchange rate will probably
rise, if there is the same demand but less money, or if
there is higher demand, as foreigners take advantage
of the higher interest rates to invest in the currency.
* Cons develop their ideas as critical as possible to defeat the counterparty’s right statements, somewhat
feeling to the extent of “logic-chopping”. Though the pros’ statement seems to have enough logic in it,
it’s interesting that cons has a superior position than pros during debate. This is because cons have the
advantage of knowing the direction of their counterparty in advance while pros feel satisfied with the
logical certainty of the statement.
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PHƯƠNG THỨC QRCV NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG TƯ DUY
PHÊ PHÁN TRONG HỌC TẬPTIẾNGANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH
Ri Chung Sim, Kang Chol Su, Kim Yong Hyong
Khoa Tài chính, Đại học Kim Nhật Thành,
Bình Nhưỡng, Cộng hòa DCND Triều Tiên
Tóm tắt: Thuật ngữ ‘tư duy phê phán’ ngày càng phổ biến trong giáo dục và giảng dạy ngôn
ngữ. Nó là một trong những kỹ năng cốt yếu đối với mọi người học trong thế kỷ 21 (Hughes, 2014).
Gần đây người ta cũng đã đặc biệt quan tâm đến các phương thức rèn luyện tư duy phê phán trong học
ngoại ngữ. Thông thường sinh viên học ngoại ngữ chuyên ngành ở các nước phi bản ngữ rất khó thụ đắc
kiến thức tài chính bằng tiếng Anh mặc dù đã đạt trình độ tiếng Anh cơ bản. Do vậy, bài viết giới thiệu
phương thức QRCV để tăng cường kỹ năng tư duy phê phán giúp người học vượt qua những thách thức
trong tiếng Anh chuyên ngành. Nguyên tắc cơ bản của phương thức QRCV là Tự vấn, Lập luận, Xem
xét vấn đề từ nhiều góc độ, và Trực quan hóa. Nghiên cứu của chúng tôi nhằm xác định hiệu quả của
QRCV trong việc nâng cao kỹ năng tư duy phê phán của người học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành. 72 sinh
viên học tiếng Anh tài chính tham gia nghiên cứu. Trong 1 học kỳ, nhóm thực nghiệm (n=36) học môn
tiếng Anh tài chính theo phương thức QRCV trong khi nhóm đối chứng học theo cách thức truyền thống.
Bài kiểm tra tư duy phê phán trong tiếng Anh chuyên ngành (CTSTFE) được sử dụng làm công cụ kiểm
tra trước và sau thực nghiệm, và kết quả thi được chấm theo các tiêu chí tư duy phê phán quan yếu. Kết
quả nghiên cứu cho thấy nhóm thực nghiệm có kết quả học tập cao hơn nhóm đối chứng, đặc biệt là về
kỹ năng Xem xét vấn đề từ nhiều góc độ. Nghiên cứu chỉ ra những ứng dụng hữu ích của QRCV trong
môn tiếng Anh các chuyên ngành khác nữa.
Từ khóa: tư duy phê phán, tiếng Anh chuyên ngành, tiếng Anh tài chính, tự vấn, lập luận
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