TITLE:
An Exploration of a CLIL Teaching Model Empowered by Critical Thinking Strategies—A Case Study of the “Comprehensive Business English” Course
AUTHORS:
Xiuling Shi, Lifang Wei
KEYWORDS:
CLIL, Critical Thinking Skills, Teaching Model for “Comprehensive Business English”, Localized Content
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.15 No.11,
November
21,
2025
ABSTRACT: This study addresses the challenges in teaching the “Comprehensive Business English” course, a core program integrating language, culture, and business knowledge. Current practices face difficulties, including textbooks whose topic depth and text complexity exceed the cognitive level of students from tier-three universities, and traditional teaching models that struggle to synergistically develop language proficiency, subject content mastery, and critical thinking skills. Based on the teaching philosophy of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and incorporating strategies for cultivating critical thinking skills, this study constructs a teaching model suitable for the “Comprehensive Business English” course. By introducing localized teaching content, designing teaching sessions that incorporate higher-order thinking activities such as application, analysis, evaluation, and creativity, and employing diversified output tasks, the study achieves the coordinated development of language skills, subject content, and critical thinking skills, proposing a “content-language-critical thinking” pedagogical concept.