Intertextualizing interactive texts for critical thinking: A South Korean EFL experience

ABSTRACT

In the past three decades or so, the conceptual rigor of intertextuality has exercised enormous influence on pedagogical practices. In this context, intertextuality can also be used as a means of harnessing students’ critical stances that are crucial for teaching language skills. Based on eight qualitative student interviews at a university in South Korea, the authors introduce a case study in which English as a foreign lanugage students develop their critical thinking by responding to an interactive (oral/visual) text in a listening comprehension/speaking class. Critical thinking is a specific learning outcome of this English as a foreign lanugage program. A typology of intertextuality has also been introduced here to illustrate how various intertextual links can stimulate students’ critical observation. The theoretical framework of this research is informed by the concept of intertextuality, which prescribes that texts are populated with other texts, and that they have textual as well as contextual links with each other. As the findings of this empirical investigation demonstrate, Discourse emerging from intertextual resources could be utilized as a textual space where, with appropriate pedagogical intervention, students have immense opportunities for developing critical stances.