A Study On The Impact Of Peer Learning On English Majors’ Critical Thinking Ability

The research on critical thinking started in America in the early20thcentury.Critical thinking plays a key role in many fields, especially in education. It isregarded as an indispensable quality for college students. However, it hasn’t beenattached importance to until the early21stcentury in China. Research on criticalthinking in China can be mainly found in the fields of medicine and natural sciencewhile a few in the field of language teaching for English majors. Due to the severelack of critical thinking ability, English majors in China are in dire need of concreteand feasible methods to enhance their critical thinking ability. Supported by theconstructivism learning theory, the zone of proximal development and the secondlanguage acquisition theories, and proved by practice, peer learning shows itseffectiveness in promoting English majors’ critical thinking ability.This study explores the impact of peer learning on English majors’ criticalthinking ability from an empirical perspective.119juniors of English major from akey university in China are invited to participate in the experiment for one academicsemester. To make a contrast the students are divided into two groups: the treatmentgroup (56students) with peer learning model while the controlled one (63students)with the traditional teaching model. Three forms of peer learning are employed in thetreatment group, i.e., Group Discussion on Topics Related to the Textbook in class,Pair Revising on Compositions after class, and Group Presentation. Combiningqualitative and quantitative methods, this study adopts interview and applies theChinese version of critical thinking disposition inventory made by Peng Meici (2004)and the Qualitative Skills Instrument to investigate the change happens between thetwo groups with regard to critical thinking ability after one semester experiment. Theresearch questions are as follows:(1) Does peer learning have any impact on English majors’ critical thinking ability in Chinese college? If it has, then is the impactpositive or negative?(2) Is the critical thinking ability of English majors who havereceived peer learning higher than those who are under the traditional teaching model?(3) Are the three activities of peer learning designed in this study helpful to enhanceEnglish majors’ critical thinking ability?(4) What are the attitudes of students intreatment group towards these three activities?After one semester teaching experiment, the major findings are as follows:(1)Peer learning has positive impact on English majors’ critical thinking ability. Nomatter in terms of the general critical thinking disposition or skill, the treatment grouphas improves obviously. In detail, the treatment group manifests significantenhancement in the dispositions of inquisitiveness and maturity, and slightimprovement in open-mindedness and systematicity; and evident advancement in allskills except inference.(2) The controlled group has obtained evident improvement inthe general critical thinking skill but no visible elevation in the general disposition.Detailedly, the controlled group improves evidently in the disposition of maturity andthe skill of interpretation.(3) No significant difference exists between the two groupsin the pre-test, but in the post-test, the treatment group is obviously higher than thecontrolled group no matter in the general disposition or skill. As for dispositions, thetreatment group is evidently higher than the controlled group in open-mindedness,critical thinking confidence and inquisitiveness. Moreover, the skills of evaluationand self-regulation of the treatment group are significantly higher than the controlledgroup.(4) The three peer learning activities facilitate the development of students’critical thinking dispositions and skills. In conclusion, peer learning is beneficial tothe development of English majors’ critical thinking ability.