Abstract

• Critical thinking is recognized as one of the most essential skills for 21st century learners. From the perspective of English language teaching, teachers, researchers, and syllabus writers think of learners’ language acquisition through critical thinking as an effective language pedagogical approach. The present study examines the integration of critical thinking in New Language Leader textbooks by using content analysis method, aiming to raise awareness among teachers, researchers, pedagogues, and regional and national authorities about the representation of critical thinking in EFL textbooks. The findings of the study revealed that the textbooks had strengths in terms of incorporating higher order thinking skills into language tasks and activities. The textbooks were found to effectively integrate higher order thinking skills into language tasks compared to the textbooks examined in previous studies mentioned in the literature review section. However, the detailed analysis of knowledge and cognitive thinking skills revealed that procedural and metacognitive knowledge types are not properly integrated into the textbooks. Among the six thinking skills, applying and creating thinking skills are underemphasized. Based on the findings of the analysis, the study recommends that EFL teachers should take steps to address the underemphasized knowledge types and thinking skills identified in the textbooks. Specifically, teachers are encouraged to customize their language instruction and supplementary exercises to better integrate procedural and metacognitive knowledge types, as well as to emphasize applying and creating thinking processes.