critical theoryn
originally a form of social theory, now also used to refer to an educational
philosophy and movement that emphasizes the importance of critical
examination of topics and practices where issues of social justice are at
stake. The goal of critical theory is to identify, confront, and resolve
problems of injustice through the processes of awareness, reflection, and
argumentation. Language and language use is an important focus of
critical theory since language is believed to play a key role in creating or
maintaining power and in expressing ideological positions because it
represents participants’ values either directly or indirectly. Empowerment
and emancipation from the constraints of social institutions and structures
are key themes in most critical approaches.
critical thinkingn
a level of reading comprehension or discussion skills when the learner is
able to question and evaluate what is read or heard. In language teaching
this is said to engage students more actively with materials in the target lan-
guage, encourage a deeper processing of it, and show respect for students
as independent thinkers.
Cronbach’s alphan
also coefficient alpha
a measure of internal consistency based on information about (a) the
number of items on the test, (b) the varianceof the scores of each item,
and (c) the varianceof the total test scores. Mathematically speaking,
it is equivalent to the average of the reliability estimates for all possible
splits. When items are dichotomously scored, Cronbach’s alpha results are
equal to those of KR20, which is why KR20 is considered a special case of
Cronbach’s alpha.
see also internal consistency reliability, split-half reliability
cross-cultural analysisn
analysis of data from two or more different cultural groups, in order to
determine if generalizations made about members of one culture are
also true of the members of other cultures. Cross-cultural research is an
important part of sociolinguistics, since it is often important to know if
generalizations made about one language group reflect the culture of that
group or are universal.
cross-cultural communicationn
an exchange of ideas, information, etc., between persons from different
cultural backgrounds. There are often more problems in cross-cultural
cross-cultural communication