Currently, critical thinking is a crucial factor in many educational programs. Online learning and EFL are ever more important due to globalization, digital life, and spread of English worldwide. In addition, a controversy among scholars about whether children can develop critical thinking has been arisen for a long time. Based on literature review, an observation checklist for critical thinking skills has been designed to investigate if young learners develop critical thinking skills in an EFL online classroom. A case study of two primary students has been adopted to do conduct qualitative research. Several findings are as follows: (i) the students’ critical thinking skills have developed after attending the EFL online course, (ii) higher level skills improved slower than lower level skills. Furthermore, some implications to the EFL teachers in training critical thinking skills for young learners are discussed along with acknowledging limitations and providing future research suggestions.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Thesis Structure 1
1.2. Background & Motivation 1
1.3. Purpose 2
1.4. Research Question 2
1.5. Definition of Terms 3
1.6. Summary 3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1. Critical Thinking Skills 5
2.2. Bloom’s Taxonomy 9
2.2.1. Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking 9
2.2.2. Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Importance of Background Knowledge 10
2.3. Critical Thinking Skills in Young Learners’ Development 11
2.3.1. Development of Young Learners’ Critical Thinking 11
2.3.2. Teacher’s Strategies to develop Young Learners’ Critical Thinking Skills 12
2.4. Critical Thinking and Online Learning 14
2.5. Critical Thinking and EFL 15
2.6. Online Learning and EFL 16
2.7. Summary 17
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19
3.1. Research Method 19
3.2. Participants and Research Settings 19
3.3. Materials used in the Online Course 21
3.4. Research Tools 26
3.5. Procedures 29
3.6. Data Collection and Analysis 30
3.7. Summary 30
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS & DISCUSSION 33
4.1. Obtained Data 33
4.2. Results 35
4.2.1. Comprehending and Applying Skills Development 35
4.2.2. Analyzing Skills Development 36
4.2.3. Self-Regulating Skills Development 37
4.2.4. General Development 38
4.2.5. Performance in Each Period 39
4.3. Discussion 40
4.4. Summary 41
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 43
5.1. Concluding Remarks 43
5.2. Implications 43
5.3. Limitations and Future Research 44
5.3.1. Design Limitations 44
5.3.2. Data Limitations 45
5.4. Summary 45
REFERENCES 47
APPENDIX 53
Appendix A: Contents in the Coursebook Cambridge Global English 4 54
Appendix B: Raw Data 59
Appendix C: Students’ Performance Examples 61

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