Practice of critical thinking for improving Ramkhamhaeng University students’ speaking skill in presenting arguments in German

Abstract

This research aims to study problems of expressing arguments in German and to explore a suitable approach or pattern to improve the speaking skills in presenting arguments in German. The purpose is to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to present arguments in German for students with language competence of A2 level onwards from the German Section, Department of Western Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Ramkhamhaeng University. The data used in this study were obtained from the practice of speaking skills in presenting arguments in German using Fünf-Satz-Methode (5-sentence method) of 8 students. The results of the study found that the Fünf-Satz-Methode (5-sentence method) was able to improve the speaking skills by analyzing and comparing the results of the pre-test and post-test assessments including analysis of improvements in 10 student works from an experiment to practice speaking skills in presenting arguments by using the Fünf-Satz-Methode (5-sentence method). The research also found that the participants had problems in expressing arguments in German in four scopes, listed in descending order as follows 1) the structure of arguments 2) finding reasons to support opinions or arguments 3) giving examples or citing reliable evidence and 4) incorrect German grammatical structures resulting in incomplete communication. It is hoped that the findings will be useful for further learning and teaching German in Thailand.