Although critical thinking is a complex skill that should be hard to put into practice while using a second language, attempts to test this ability for intermediate Japanese EFL learners (CEFR A2 to B1 level) have been successful (Hirai et al., 2020). However, for junior college students on mandatory ESP (English for Specific Purposes) classes whose English language ability and motivation to improve varies widely, the critical thinking educational curricula need to be compelling, concise and motivational. To this effect, the short text from Lett (1990) “A field guide to critical thinking” and its core acronym “FiLCHeRS” were used as the main basis of instruction. Then, the FiLCHeRS method was complimented with several short videos in English. The videos were used to highlight key concepts and uses of critical thinking, portraying it as a necessary life skill. Complementary direct instruction was also conducted in both English and Japanese. This presentation will report on the correlation between the students’ self-reported level of English, measurements of vowel minimal pairs’ listening skills, motivational make up, polarity of the students’ comments towards the English course, and two questionnaires (in increasing order of difficulty) to ascertain the students’ application of critical thinking concepts.