Linguistics Study and Critical Thinking: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

From a linguistic perspective it seems intuitive that a strong link would exist between the study of linguistics and critical thinking (CT). After all, linguistics is about making sense of language analysis, which contributes to the enhancement of CT while CT, in reciprocation, enables meaningful analysis. Yet this link has virtually never been clearly defined or made explicit either in studies on linguistics teaching and learning or in those on CT development. This paper explores the relationship between linguistics study and CT in the Vietnamese context from the perspectives of undergraduate English Linguistics students and their lecturers, with a view to improving both students' linguistics study and their CT. Drawing on data collected in questionnaires and interviews at a public university in Vietnam, the findings of the study reveal a variety of aspects of linguistics tasks and classroom activities where the link is significant as well as a range of specific CT skills and dispositions that are related to linguistics teaching and learning. In general, the students and the lecturers showed a positive attitude towards the integration of CT into linguistics teaching and learning, but challenges and barriers to this integration were identified. The study suggests the use of problem-solving tasks and open-ended questions for fostering the reciprocal relationship between linguistics study and CT.