Résumé:
This study is a preliminary to the investigation of the use of critical thinking in students’
argumentative writing. More specifically, this study aims at shedding lights on students’ use
of critical thinking when writing argumentative essays. To test the hypothesis that the
majority of students do not have the adequate level of critical thinking that helps them to write
effective argumentative essays, a written test is assigned to (30) third year students of English
at the University of Mohamed Seddik Ben-Yahya. Moreover, a questionnaire is administered
to the subjects of the written test. Finally, an interview is conducted with four teachers of
written expression at the department of English. The findings show that the majority of
students do not think critically when writing their argumentative essays. Thus, the results of
this investigation confirm the research hypothesis. Further, the results also show that the
majority of the students neither know much about critical thinking nor receive training to
develop this skill.
