Improving EFL Students’ Listening and Critical Thinking Skills through Higher-Order Thinking Questions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35719/jlic.v7i2.653Keywords:
Listening, Critical Thinking, High Order ThinkingAbstract
This study explores the effectiveness of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) questions in fostering critical thinking among EFL learners in a Listening for Academic Purposes (LAP) class. While academic listening inherently involves cognitive processes such as inference, evaluation, and analysis, EFL instruction often focuses on lower-order comprehension tasks. To address this gap, the study implements HOTS-based questioning strategies within a Classroom Action Research (CAR) framework, promoting reflective teaching and continuous improvement. The research was conducted with six intermediate EFL students over two cycles, incorporating academic audio materials, structured HOTS questions, and student-centered discussions. Data were collected through observation checklists, student reflection sheets, and pre- and post-tests. Findings indicate that students initially struggled with higher-order questions but showed significant improvement in both critical thinking and listening performance after receiving appropriate scaffolding and practice. The post-test results and classroom observations revealed increased engagement, deeper analysis, and more thoughtful responses. This study concludes that integrating HOTS questions into LAP instruction can effectively enhance critical thinking skills in EFL learners. It also highlights the value of reflective teaching practices in adapting instructional strategies to meet learner needs. Implications are offered for language teachers, curriculum designers, and future researchers aiming to enrich listening pedagogy through critical thinking development.
References
Alzamil, J. (2021). Listening Skills: Important but Difficult to Learn – AWEJ. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 12(3), 355–374. https://doi.org/dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol12no3.25
Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision ff Bloom’s Taxonomy ff Educational Objectives. Longman.
Armala, I., Fauziati, E., & Asib, A. (2022). Exploring Students’ LOTS and HOTS in Answering Reading Questions. Journal of Education Technology, 6(3), 390–397. https://doi.org/10.23887/jet.v6i3.46427
Awinindia, S. (2023). Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Socio-Affective Strategies Used By English First Language Students in Academic Listening Course. Lensa, 13(1), 151–151. https://doi.org/10.26714/lensa.13.1.2023.151-168
Baki, Y. (2025). The Impact of Critical Listening and Critical Reading on Critical Thinking. Behavioral Sciences, 15(1), 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15010034
Bourdeaud’hui, H., Aesaert, K., & van Braak, J. (2021). Exploring the relationship between metacognitive awareness, motivation, and L1 students’ critical listening skills. The Journal of Educational Research, 114(1), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2021.1872474
Faravani, A., & Taleb, E. (n.d.). Teachers’ use of Bloom’s higher order questions in class to augment EFL learners’ listening comprehension and critical thinking ability [Review of Teachers’ use of Bloom’s higher order questions in class to augment EFL learners’ listening comprehension and critical thinking ability]. Journal of Language and Cultural Education, 8(2), 94–113.
Eriyani, N. R. (2022). An Analysis of HOTS and LOTS of Listening and Reading Activity in English Textbook Entitled "Bright an English‟ Based on Cognitive Domain of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy [Thesis].
Fu, Y., Wang, M., Min, S., Zhou, S., & Pan, X. (2023). Exploring the relationship between metacognitive awareness and Chinese EFL learners’ listening skills. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1148610
Gozali, I., Lie, A., Tamah, S. M., & Jemadi, F. (2021). HOTS Questioning Ability and HOTS Perception of Language Teachers in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v11i1.34583
Gwilliams, L., Marantz, A., Poeppel, D., & King, J. (2023). Top-down information shapes lexical processing when listening to continuous speech. Language Cognition and Neuroscience, 39(8), 1045–1058. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2023.2171072
Hamzah, H., Hamzah, M. I., & Zulkifli, H. (2022). Systematic Literature Review on the Elements of Metacognition-Based Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Teaching and Learning Modules. Sustainability, 14(2), 813. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020813
Hasbullah, Martanti, B., Sulistyahadi, Ni’mah, F., & Busroni, L. (2022). The Best Practice of Integrating Hots (High Order Thinking Skill) In English For Pharmacy Class At Qamarul Huda Badaruddin University. International Journal of Social Science, 2(2), 1507–1512. https://doi.org/10.53625/ijss.v2i2.3083
Hunter, C. R. (2021). Dual-Task Accuracy and Response Time Index Effects of Spoken Sentence Predictability and Cognitive Load on Listening Effort. Trends in Hearing, 25, 233121652110180. https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165211018092
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2013). Action Research Planner: Doing Critical Participatory Action Research. Springer.
Khanif, M. (2022). Flipped Classroom with Hots Instruction In Listening Class: Best Practice Approach And Implementation For Employee Class. Jurnal Smart, 8(1), 72–79. https://doi.org/10.52657/js.v8i1.1624
Latupono, F., & Nikijuluw, R. C. G. V. (2022). The Importance of Teaching Listening Strategies in English Language Context. MATAI: International Journal of Language Education, 3(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.30598/matail.v2i2.5935
Lee, J. S., & Lu, Y. (2021). L2 motivational Self system and willingness to communicate in the classroom and extramural digital contexts. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 36(1-2), 126–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.1901746
Lengkoan, F., Andries, F., & Tatipang , D. (2022). A Study on Listening Problems Faced By Students Of Higher Education. Globish (an English-Indonesian Journal for English, Education and Culture), 11(1), 41–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.31000/globish.v7i2
Lynch, T. (2011). Academic listening in the 21st century: Reviewing a decade of research. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 10(2), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2011.03.001
Nagaraj, N. K. (2021). Effect of auditory distraction on working memory, attention switching, and listening comprehension. Audiology Research, 11(2), 227–243. https://doi.org/10.3390/audiolres11020021
Ong, J., & Zhang, L. J. (2012). Effects of the manipulation of cognitive processes on EFL writers’ text quality. TESOL Quarterly, 47(2), 375–398. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.55
Purwanto, D., Fadhly, F. Z., & Rahmatunisa, W. (2021). Listening Comprehension Study: Difficulties And Strategies Used By College Students. Indonesian Journal of Learning and Instruction, 4(1), 55–62. https://doi.org/10.25134/ijli.v4i1.4345
Qasserras, L. (2025). Systematic Review of Effective Teaching Listening Practices In Esl/Efl Settings. European Journal of English Language Teaching, 9(6). https://doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v9i6.5768
Ramadhana, D. (2024). Critical Listening in Practice: Exploring The Difficulties and Strategies of First-Semester Students. Ijelap: Indonesian Journal of Education, Language, and Psychology, 1(2).
Rogers, C. R., & Farson, R. E. (2021). Active listening. (p. 84). Mockingbird Press.
Sagor, R. (2000). Guiding school improvement with action research. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Schmidt-Rinehart, B. C. (1994). The Effects of Topic Familiarity on Second Language Listening Comprehension. The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.2307/329008
Wallace, M. P. (2020). Individual Differences in Second Language Listening: Examining the Role of Knowledge, Metacognitive Awareness, Memory, and Attention. Language Learning, 72(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12424
Yudhi Prasetyani, N., Suhaimi, S., Habibi, H., Suhardianto , S., & Susrianingsih, S. (2024). Effectiveness of Grammar-Translation and Audio-Lingual Method in Learning English in Indonesian Universities. Deleted Journal, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.70177/ijlul.v2i1.785
Zhang, P., & Graham, S. (2020). Learning Vocabulary Through Listening: The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge and Listening Proficiency. Language Learning, 70(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12411
Zhang, S., & Zhang, X. (2020). The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and L2 reading/listening comprehension: A meta-analysis. Language Teaching Research, 26(4), 696–725. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820913998
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Diba Ramadhana, Iqbal Firdaus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
