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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 3
Publication Date: March 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.83.9818. Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the
Translation Studies Students
Dilara Demirbulak
Educational Science Department, Medipol University
Education Faculty, İstanbul, Turkey
Kübra Bodur
Translating and Interpretation Department
AREL University, İstanbul, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Developing translation students’ critical writing skills is an important
issue in academia since they are expected to be critical thinkers and
contribute to the field of study. The most important precursor of
critical writing is critical reading which is an active, probing and
recursive approach to interpret and use the information and ideas
from the text. Meanwhile, keeping in mind the vast explosion of mass
media products and technology, critical viewing is unavoidable serving
the same purpose of hard-copy texts. Moreover, in recent years, the
role of literature as the main component and material of its original
texts has accelerated as a teaching of critical thinking and writing
rather than a final goal. This paper aims to examine the effect of critical
viewing and reading of literary texts on the critical writing skills of
undergraduates of the Department of Translation and Interpreting.
The “Ennis - Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test”, designed by Ennis and
Weir in 1985, was used to identify the impact of critical viewing and
reading on critical writing skills. In this quasi-experimental study
ANOVA, Kruskal- Wallis, and T-test were used to analyze the impact of
critical viewing and reading on the critical writing skills of the 30
undergraduates.
Keywords: critical viewing; writing; translation; literature.
INTRODUCTION
Although translation and the training of translators date back as far as 3rd-century translation
studies as an academic discipline were founded in the late 20th century stemming from differing
sources in different countries. It was the outgrowth of creative writing workshops in the United
States, linguistic and scientific ones in Germany and Turkey; Russian Formalism in Russia and
Eastern Europe, comparative literary and historical studies in Belgium and Holland. Having
become an academic discipline it then became an interdisciplinary followed by a post-disciplinary
approach [37]. This meant assuring the quality of not only translation products by setting
international standards but also the pedagogical aims. The curricula of translation studies, on the
other hand, have always been questioned [10, 46, 47] especially in terms of enabling learners` to
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
enhance their ability to make use of their critical thinking skills to read and view critically [19,21,
26, 41, 50]. This is believed to be the result of learners not being fully furnished with critical
thinking skills [7,8 36,51]. Critical thinking skill training is, therefore, proposed to prevent rote
memorization and thus improve students` achievement [1,3, 22]. This issue requires the design of
deliberated instruction that explicitly focuses on important ideas and appropriate evidence of
learning, to improve the critical thinking skills of learners`.
Critical thinking and critical reading are inseparable so there cannot be one without the other.
Texts for reading can be written, visual, or multimodal forms that include various means of
communication such as visual images, soundtrack or spoken words, as in film or computer
presentation media. Therefore, critical reading and viewing skill training need to be incorporated
into the instructional approach. Critical viewing is especially important for the "Z” generation
since they are "edutainment" centered learners. As formed by the combination of the words
"education" and "entertainment", "edutainment" has lately been accepted as the newest
educational trend of the 21st century. It is a teaching technique and a principle of a method that
has been designed for having fun while teaching and learning. Apart from the traditional course
books and texts, it offers a wide variety of modern course materials, such as movies, games, shows,
adaptations, shows, TV productions, exhibitions, art galleries, computer applications and so and so
forth. They are the materials that are used for having the attention of the learner during imposing
educational sub- messages via their own experiences via dramatization, educational films, stories,
songs, multimedia, etc. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the use of literary texts during the
instructional process not only enables learners to be exposed to real-life language, be able to
develop language, linguistic and socio-cultural competence [4, 23,15, 43] but also to comment,
justify and mirror themselves. It is true that students’ perceptions and performance in
undergraduate courses might change depending on the language implementations of institutions
[54]. Yet, writing becomes the most important way of helping students find their ways in such a
case. Critical writing is especially very important in translation because it helps the translators to
have a better choice of equivalences and hence produce a better translation. Problem-solving and
decision- making are the most relevant elements in translation. To solve a problem, the translators
have to make decisions that involve knowledge-based intelligent activities [51]. Therefore, this
study aimed to identify the effect of critical viewing of the fantasy literature on the
undergraduates` critical writing skills.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Thinking can be described as a process employed by an individual making purely his or her own
decisions. Critical thinking, on the other hand, is going one step further by an individual and “think
about his or her thinking” to take charge of their thinking process. Therefore, it is also referred to
as "reflective thinking or judgment" [9, 11,48], problem-solving and reasoning [38,48]. Critical
thinking is analyzing and challenging information from differing sources to draw personal
conclusions that could be explained and justified [30] rather than just accumulating information
that influences one's view of world and approach to life and learning [44]. The literature suggests
that critical thinking students have better performance in reading [12,21,26,31,39, 41, 50]
Modern or fictional literature [40] since fictional scenarios go beyond borders and require intense
imagination [13, 45]. It involves analysis of literary works from a variety of critical perspectives
[18] though readers must build their skills, moving from a literal understanding of a text to
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counterfactual one [5]. It is pointed out that the brain not only looks at past experiences but also
needs to be capable of imagining virtual and hypothetical scenarios and anticipate to stimulate
critical thinking [16]. The traditional literature requires learner's elucidation of the details and
the structure of the parts forming the whole of a story as well its interpretation via within the
boundaries the text [6, 27]. Meanwhile, having students understand the importance of looking
through a critical lens at all times and having the necessary skills to look for reasons and evidence
rather than the content itself requires learners` to recognize the author`s beliefs, and it is also
described as a guise for discussing things that one cannot generally discuss and provide an
opportunity for the reader to stop looking inwards and explore other perspectives in the world (as
cited in 35].
As with all the academic disciplines critical thinking skill is very important quality in translation
and interpretation since it is a very challenging and complex processes that call for critical
thinking ability. The main finding in the literature reviewed in this study was that there is a
relationship between the translators' critical thinking ability and the quality of their translation [2,
19, 20, 25, 29, 32, 34, 42]. They have stated that the students’ critical thinking skills could
significantly predict their translation quality and governs the process from the moment the
translator starts reading until the end, which is the production of the end-result. The
mistranslation of the Japanese telegram sent to Washington just before the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima [33] is a good example of the importance of translation. It is also pointed out that the
main critical thinking skills need to be taught prior to expecting them to make use of these skills
and thus become better thinkers” [14].
METHOD
Participants
This study was carried out with thirty (30) sophomore students taking the “Language, Literature
and Culture for Translators” course offered at the Arts and Science Faculty, Department of English
Interpreting and Translation. Experimental and control groups of the study were formed via
randomly assigning the students to these groups. Non-equivalent pre-post-test groups were made
use of in this quasi-experimental study to demonstrate the extent of changes in students’ critical
writing skills after the treatment. The non-equivalent pre-post-test group design is an effective
means to overcome the worries about two convenience-sampling groups not being comparable
[28].
Measurement
The questionnaire and the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test were the two data collection
instruments.
The questionnaire planned by the instructor of the course was utilized to recognize the
understudy's inclinations of writing to frame the material of the course.
Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test was used at pre – and post-study. It takes the form of a
letter to the editor of a fictional newspaper about parking on the street. In the letter, the writer
proposes and offers a variety of arguments in support of it. Each argument appears in a separate
numbered paragraph. There are nine paragraphs in all; each paragraph exemplifies at least one of
the errors or types of reasoning. Two of the paragraphs give probable support to the writer`s
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
proposal. Examinees, read the letter and then write an essay evaluating the argument of each
paragraph and the letter as a whole. It evaluates critical thinking capacity in the argumentation
setting. The Ennis-Weir test has the advantage of material legitimacy since it proposes regular
circumstances to look at the capacity to assess and figure contentions.
The criteria and scoring suggestions are left to the graders since adequate responses to paused
problems at each paragraph could be expressed in different ways while making the same point
and that critical thinking is an open-ended activity. The inter-rater unwavering quality on
undergrads in a school level starting casual rationale course and 28 talented students’ undergrads
of Translation division was accounted for as .86 and .82, separately, which is a high connection for
an exposition type test [11]. The inter-rater dependability in this study was .71 and .69 separately
which is a considerable relationship for an exposition type test.
Procedures
The procedures of the study could be described as consisting of four main stages as provided.
First Stage of the Study
During the first stage the questionnaire designed by the researcher and the advisor was
administered to both experimental and control groups prior to the course so that their
preferences of content could be identified.
Second and Fourth Stage of the Study
At the beginning and the end of the semester and the study The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay
Test was administered to both groups (the experimental and control). They were asked to write a
critical reflection paper to the editor of the Moorburg newspaper as required by the the Ennis- Weir Critical Thinking Essay in 45 minutes. to the Criteria and Scoring Sheet for the Ennis- Weir.
Then, the essays of both groups were evaluated using the Critical Thinking Essay rubric.
Table 1 Description of the Stages of the Study
Stage of the Study Activity
1 Identification of learners` preferences of content via questionnaire
2 Pre-Test - “The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test”
3 Critical Viewing and Reading with the
Experimental Group/ Conventional Viewing
and Reading with the Control Group
4 Post-Test - “The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test”
Third Stage of the Study
The third stage was the implementation of the course curriculum for the Experimental and
Control group. At this stage, critical viewing and reading activities were carried out only with the
experimental group. The Control Group was asked to answer comprehension questions while
and/or upon reading.
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The semester began with "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" and continued with “Alice in the
Wonderland” as the reading text for both groups for 4 weeks. The Experimental Group was asked
to adapt the text into a movie script in class as a group activity. The activity was held in the
classroom for a 3-lesson-hour time. A sort of workshop was held for students writing their movie
scripts. They were asked to take some points into consideration while adapting the play into an
imaginative movie script. Those points were mainly:
• The world and setting of the story.
• The 5– 8 principle characters of the story including the hero and foe, what their particular
backstories are and why/how they meet up.
• What 5 things about their principle hero/opponent are the most significant for a crowd of
people to know.
• The real center clash of the story and why/how this happens.
• The most visual and key scenes in the book that interface with how that contention plays
out.
• Their favourite 10 to 20 lines of exchange that drive the plot are indispensable to the
story or character improvement and that true sparkle.
• The major overarching theme of the play.
The Control Group, on the other hand, was solely asked to read and answer the comprehension
questions. They did their readings mainly after class and their answers were discussed in class.
The students were introduced to a new literary genre “science-fiction”, commonly abbreviated as
“sci-fi” the following weeks. As it had been done for the genre “fantasy fiction”, students of both
groups were lectured about the etymology, historical background, and literary origin of “science- fiction”. They told their own opinions on the genre and named the most acclaimed works of the
genre as “Frankenstein”, “Time Machine”, “1984” and etc. in English literature. Then, both groups
read the novella “Frankenstein”. However, having read the text, only the Experimental Group, was
asked to put on a debate show arguing about “Creator vs Creation” controversy. Then, they
watched the movies and discussions about the differences between the novella, and the movies
were discussed. The Control Group, on the other hand, was solely asked to read and answer the
comprehension questions. “Matrix” as the work of a science fiction genre was utilized the
following week. Just like, it had been done with the first movie adaptation earlier, students
watched the movie during the class and wrote a reflective essay about “There is a difference
between knowing the path and walking the path” which is a quote given from the movie.
Data Analysis
Before conducting the main analyses, normality of pre-test and post-test scores of experimental
and control groups were assessed by skewness and kurtosis values. The values of skewness and
kurtosis between -1 and +1 are considered acceptable in order to prove normal univariate
distribution. Since the data of present study were not in acceptable range, non-parametric tests
were used. Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to compare pre-test scores of experimental and
control groups. Then two separate Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were carried out for both
experimental and control group in order to evaluate whether these groups showed any difference
in The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores from pre-test to post test.
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The main hypothesis of this study was that critical viewing had a positive impact on the critical
writing performance of Interpretation and Translation department students. The findings and
discussions have been centered on this hypothesis. In order to test it the descriptive statistics of
pre-test and post-test scores for experimental and control groups were looked into (Table 2). For
pre-test scores of the experimental group, the total score was 217, the mean score was 14, 46 and
the standard deviation was 6, 18. While the minimum score was 5, the maximum score was 27 for
the same group. For pre-test scores of the control group, total score was 279, mean score was
18,60 and the standard deviation was 9. The minimum - maximum scores were 3 and 29
respectively.
When post-test scores of groups were considered, experimental group’s total score was 331, mean
score was 22,06 and standard deviation was 4,80. While minimum score was 15, maximum score
was 29. For post-test scores of control group, total score was 289, mean score was 19,26 and
standard deviation was 8,49. Minimum maximum scores were 3 and 29. As it is seen, for both
groups mean scores of post-test results were higher than mean scores of pre-test results.
Table 2 Descriptive Statistics of Pre- and Post-Test Scores for Experimental and Control Groups
Groups N Sum Mean SD Min-Max
Pre-test scores
Experimental
Control
15
15
217
279
14,46
18,60
6,18
9
5-
27
3-
29
Post-test scores
Experimental
Control
15
15
331
289
22,06
19,26
4,80
8,49
15-29
3-29
In order to check whether there was a significant difference between pre-test scores of
experimental and control groups, Mann-Whitney U test was conducted. The results of the analyses
are presented in Table 3.
Table 3 Mann-Whitney U test results of pre-test scores with regard to groups
Groups n Mean Rank
Sum of
Ranks U p Ranks
Experimental 15 13,43 201,5
81,5 0,19
Control 15 17,57 263,5
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Table 4 Wilcoxon Signed Rank test results of control group’s pre-test and post-test scores
Pre-test-Post-test n Mean Rank Sum of Ranks z p
Negative Rank 7 7,64 53,5
-0,63 0,95
Positive Rank 7 7,36 51,5
Ties 1
As illustrated in Table 4, there was no significant difference among pre-test scores of experimental
and control groups (U=81,50, p>0,05). In order to evaluate whether experimental and control
group showed any difference in The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores from pre-test
to post test, 2 separate Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were conducted. Control group’s Wilcoxon
Signed Rank test results are shown in Table 4. As the table 4 indicates, there was no significant
difference among control group’s Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores from pre –test to
post test (z=-0,63, p>0,05). In other words, control group’s post-test scores didn’t differ
significantly from their pre-test scores. According to these results, it can be said that Conventional
viewing and reading didn’t have an effect on control group’s Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay
Test scores, as expected. Experimental group’s Wilcoxon Signed Rank test results are shown in
Table 5.
Table 5 Wilcoxon Signed Rank test results of experimental group’s pre-test and post-test scores
Pre-test-Post-test n Mean Rank Sum of Ranks z p
Negative Rank 3 5,00 15,00
-2,55 0,01*
Positive Rank 12 8,75 105,00
Ties 0
As illustrated in Table 5, there was a significant difference among experimental group’s Ennis- Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores from pre–test to post-test (z=-2,55, p<0,05). In other
words, experimental group’s post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores. Critical viewing
and reading had an effect on students’ Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores. Based on
these results, it can be said that the students of the experimental group achieved to develop their
critical thinking and writing skills, in a satisfactory manner. All in all, it could be said that although
development has been observed in both experimental and control groups’ critical thinking
capacity in the argumentation setting it was not significant for either group. Further statistical
analysis has shown that contrary to the control group the experimental groups` critical thinking
and writing skills has improved.
The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test aims to help teachers, researchers and learners
diagnose skills to evaluate an argument and make a proposal supported by a variety of arguments.
Since each paragraph of the essay puts forward a different argument, the experimental and control
groups results of the paragraphs were used to identify specific areas of argumentation or
reasoning as follows:
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
The argument at the first paragraph of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test was an analogy
between parking overnight on the streets and having a garage in the street. This argument was
expected to be interpreted as a weak one and that the meaning of garage in it was incorrect or
unconventional. Majority of the students in both groups failed to focus on the weakness of this
analogy in depth at the pre-test. While the assessment of the Control Group members didn't
change much in the pre and post-test, the experimental group members did as such. At the end of
the study, in particular, the sentences they wrote in the Post- Test was much more specific and to
the point.
For example, while there was a sentence like the following in the pre-test
“Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied,”
the following was written in the post-test:
“The metropolitan overnight parking ban is, a result, each year. It will be authorized
just announced climate occasions and continuous clearing activities. Whenever
implemented, the parking forbidden is basically from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m. detailed
statements such as” all through the Regional Centre of the district"
which was awarded the full score in the post-test.
One other argument put forward by an undergraduate at the experimental group was as follows:
“Overnight parking on all streets in Moorburg should be eliminated. To achieve this goal, parking
should be prohibited from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. There are a number of reasons why any intelligent
citizen should agree. First, if citizens have garages, they can park overnight.However, in the city
streets, having a garage is an illegal condition for anyone. So, parking overnight in the streets is
against the law”.
The control group had also shown changes in their statements when the pre and post- test results
were reviewed. Although not as much as the experimental group (since no study was applied to
them), their answers are still more detailed because of the materials they read as could be seen in
the following quotations:
“this place, even in the night time traffic jam generally there, so if that is overnight
parking prohibited, there would be more space for the drivers when you say” (pre- test).
“lane on leaving the city during the night ought to be precluded because different vehicles, for
example, that road vehicles cannot drive securely substantial front saying" (post-test).
The expectation at the second paragraph of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test was for the
students to see the argument that prohibition of parking on the streets at night will not relieve
traffic congestion in the afternoon and that such an argument was defective. Most undergraduates,
both in the experimental and control group, received full credit for their responses to this section
since the error was really undeniable. One of the arguments put forward by an undergraduate at
the experimental group was as follows:
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
Police Chiefs made the same recommendation. The best way to prevent overnight parking is that
prohibiting parking from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.”
The fourth paragraph of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test is described as being defected
since it does not offer any additional reason in support of the proposition being argued for at the
Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Test. This paragraph was the one that the experimental group
students showed much more progress between their pre- and post-test papers. Their answers
were much more detailed, explanatory and solution-oriented. The following is an example of this:
“Furthermore, medium-term stopping on roads is total unwelcome as indicated by
different ones”(pre-test).
“Notwithstanding, as indicated by the total profits of the ten different ways to stop the
unwanted ones with the Motor Vehicle Act of Nova Scotia 139 learning activities. Every
day of the year, in case they are involved until the end of the response” (post-test).
Progress was also seen in the control group, however, their arguments were mainly supported
with one example or none.
“Further increasingly, over-night parking is truly diverting. It is strict should be
limited" (pre-test)
“If leaving is restricted from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., at the point, mishap among left and
moving vehicles will be almost dispensed with amid this period. So an alcoholic driver
medium- term in restricted avenues will hit your left vehicle for instance. Since the
avenues are limited because of this parking” (post-test).
The argument in the fifth paragraph is described as not being very strong in the Ennis-Weir
Critical Thinking Essay test yet being the most complex one in the test. The test takers had several
points of the arguments to criticize that they could easily not notice or give importance. As needs
are, as the understudies of the Experimental Group generally referenced, the number of mishaps
discarded, even of this remarkable and restricted sort, was not obligated to be astoundingly
exceptional. An examination solidly related to this one was that no evidence was given in
paragraph five (or wherever else in the letter) that mishaps of the minding that would be shed
truly happened (or that they occurred in gigantic numbers).
“The essential got from the truth the sort of mishaps that would have been discarded if
the recommendation had been held onto as an extraordinary and bound sort accident
between vehicles left in the city medium-term (or even more scarcely, between the
extensive stretches of 2 am and 6 am) and moving vehicles”-
wrote one of the students in the Experimental Group to define the problem profoundly by making
a comparing solution as the criteria required.
The argument in the sixth paragraph of The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test was that the
sole reason for no accident during the four-hour surveillance of the street was due to the no- parking signs being all over the street and so no valid conclusions could be deduced from it.
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Various explanations could be offered, yet they would not so much set up authentic responses of
the test or the closures drawn from it. When one of the students of the Experimental Group wrote
the following quotation in the pre-test:
"As tried by specialists, cautioning not to stop amid midnight, cautioning individuals or
notwithstanding restricting stopping demonstrates that mishaps that exploration as
several mishaps occurred in the earlier year”
An adequate response to the section would condemn the conflict to be weak and would appear to
a great extent that the reason behind this is the delicacy of the construed causal cases as follows:
“Last month, Burgess Jones who is the chief of police did an experiment about
overnight parking. He supported to ban overnight parking, so he wanted to prove the
other people, especially government. He had chosen Marquand Avenue, one of our
busiest streets, and he did not allow parking from 2 am. to 6 am. According to his
observation, there were no accidents during the four- hour period. Whereas, there
have been many accidents on this street during the past year.
Despite the metaphors used both groups seemed to progress in the arguments put forward in the
pre- and post-tests.
The eight paragraph of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test aimed for the test-takers to
realize that the definition provided is defected yet not base justify it as due to it not being clear or
satisfactory. It was a difficult paragraph to write for students because it had involved a specific
terminology and lexis to choose and use in their letters. Yet, many of the Experimental Group
students achieved to do it, especially in their post- tests, as
"On the other hand, the nonconformists of this issue have asserted that safeguards can be taken
because of any mishap, yet the significance of "insurance" is now planning something for forestall
any mishap before it occurred. There is no significance to avoid potential risk after mishaps
experienced is futile for anybody".
The control group also managed to put some remarkable words to be graded in their post-tests,
even if they had not experienced the study, as the experimental group had. For instance, the
answer below belongs to one of the students from the control group:
"The adversaries state this parking system is safe. But it is not. They do not
comprehend what sort of parking should be in our lives. On the off chance that there is
a mishap how can it be a sheltered framework? So conditions are not sheltered how
they are currently doing."
In the post-test, although many of them skip writing this paragraph is in their pre-test.
“Downtown is characterized as the piece of the city limited on the upper east by the
Saint John River, on the northwest by the northwesterly side of Smtyhe Street, on the
southwest by the southwesterly side of George Street, and on the southeast by the
southeasterly side of Church Street”- (Control Group)
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
“You would then be able to choose another exclusion date utilizing the dropdown
menu on this equivalent page” (Experimental Group)
The ninth paragraph is the concluding one and test-takers are expected to make a judgment of the
overall strength of the arguments put forward in the letter. Without vulnerability, responses in
this passage were among the hardest to rate in the test. As different from the first eight
paragraphs, this one was graded between -1 to 5. What was needed was a judgment of the general
nature of the conflict that gave unequivocal reasons anyway didn't simply repeat the responses of
the underlying eight sections. The scoring and grading criteria was "One point for just condemning
the overall argument; another point for reviewing or summarizing the responses to the other
paragraphs in some reasonable way; two points for recognizing (anywhere) the error of
concluding about all streets based on reasons that relate only to busy streets, and one point for
noting (anywhere) that it has been attempted to push people around with emotive language.”, and
it was very detailed as it can be guessed just by the criteria.
Many students skipped this paragraph since they thought it was a general concluding part and
they were intimidated by it. The ones, especially the experimental group in the post- test, who
wrote the ninth paragraph were like:
"Conditions are not protected the way are present and every one of them makes me
unpleasant and despondent. In the perspective on such data, you accomplish
something since there is something incorrectly in the center and these are driving me.
How about we get this issue out in the open?"-
At the end of the study, students perfectly started to think critically and question the problems
they are dealing with as it can be seen as one of the answers in the paragraph here.
Also, the Control Group students succeeded to put their critical views on the issue they had been
imaginatively faced to.
“All citizens are at this condition that there are many traffic jams and car accidents,
therefore I believe that the article will help our difficult solution to be solved.”
It was short and slight but at least attempted to be answered, of course, it was not expected to be
as good as the experimental group answers. Moreover, before using this test as an indicating
instrument, it was major that the educators ventured through the test, graded themselves (in the
wake of adhering to these principles), by then repeat the admonishment on assessing just before
moving into a class exchange of the test. Something different, there was a not too bad shot that the
teacher would be gotten unready for requests and issues that developed. This was not to expect
that one should have revealed to one's students how to respond to the test. In any case, except on
the off chance that one thought about the material and its possible results, one could have messed
up the odds to present illuminating requests and most likely won't see a segment of the students'
comments.
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“As a result, authorized institutions should begin working on correcting the city
structure and infrastructure. Some way, authorized security units should initiate
criminal practices” (Post- Test, Experimental Group)
“I hope these reasons are enough for my offer, as I come to the end of my letter. When
the parking at the streets or avenues between 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. is necessary for citizen
safety and welfare”- (Control Group)
CONCLUSION
As of late 20th century improvement of students` critical thinking has been highlighted as a
tertiary education-wide focus profusion of studies. However, having been the academic focus
would not mean that it is being translated into either pedagogical innovation or teaching success.
Besides, since education is a living organism there is always need for improvement. To the best of
the researchers` knowledge there is a need to carry out research about how critical thinking skill
training could be better embedded to all courses offered along with offering it as a separate
course. The discussion about whether this skill should be taught via a critical thinking course or
should it be embedded within all the courses is outside the scope of this paper. It was embedded
within the course in this study to identify whether critical thinking-reading-writing skills can be
enhanced via fantasy literature.
The results of the study indicate improvement in the critical thinking levels of the undergraduates
studying through fantasy literature. However, this study is limited to purposive population of
selected translation and interpretation undergraduates at the arts and sciences faculty. Since the
findings of the study cannot be generalized due to size of the participants further research is
needed at not only the department where this study was conducted but also at others. There
seems to be a need to carry out more research for the validation of the results obtained.
Nevertheless, we believe that the findings of this study could serve as an inspirational tool for
further research in translation and interpretation departments at national and international level.
Meanwhile, instilling critical thinking skills training in the curriculum is a prioritized goal of
higher education but the length and depth of it also need to be looked into. Considering the
current study, the mere intervention period of fourteen weeks has even proved to be not fully
adequate enough to obtain maximum improvement in undergraduates’ critical thinking levels.
Having critical thinking skills or setting higher order thinking skills objectives at the very
beginning of K12 education could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of such training. It is
pointed out that the K12 education in Turkey reinforces lower thinking skills more than higher- order thinking and that this brings about the need for tertiary education to infuse higher-order
thinking skill training in the curricula. The translation and interpretation students were not fully
equipped to make use of their higher- order thinking skills. As the study results indicated, there is
need for constant practice and nurturing to help individuals to improve their capacity to use their
reasoning skills.
Basically in this study the instructional strategies and thus educational technology used were
more traditional in the control group where as more interactive and visual means and methods
were employed in the experimental group yet the content was the same for both groups. Students
in control and experimental group were also interactive and chatting about these issues. So, the
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Demirbulak, D., & Bodur, K. (2021). The Effect of Critical Viewing on the Critical Writing Skills of the Translation Studies Students. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 8(3) 88-113.
some of the students in the control group also made use of the educational technology used in the
experimental group. The sharing of visuals and discussion among them was interpreted as that
students prefer edutainment and that they can be self-motivated if and when the necessary
learning environment can be created.
As academicians when we see undergraduates having difficulty in applying critical thinking skills
to tasks and assignments we realize that academic success has not been reached. This also means
for the instructors to do remedial work to nurture this skill since being a critical thinker means
having the ability to be reasonable and logical. It would be very good if the undergraduates were
fully equipped and able to make use of their critical thinking skills when they come to university.
Declaration of interest: No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.
Acknowledgments: none.
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