An Empirical Study On The Critical Thinking Ability Of English Majors In Agriculture And Forestry Universities

As the basic quality necessary for modern citizens,critical thinking(CT)helps people dialectically view problems,reasonably screen information,correctly interpret meanings,accurately evaluate evidence and ultimately make rational decisions.Thus,it plays a decisive role in the development of individuals,society and even the country.CT development of English majors has caused extensive discussion among scholars in recent years.Although some studies have shown that CT of English majors is not inferior to that of liberal arts,science and engineering students,it is necessary to strengthen the study of special groups.English majors in agriculture and forestry universities have distinctive characteristics due to cultivating objectives,curriculum,professional characteristics and school atmosphere.Therefore,CT of the students in this group will be also distinct.As a special group,CT development of this part of students should be paid attention to.This study takes Northwest A&F University as an example to investigate the current situation of English majors' CT,summarize factors that may promote or hinder CT development by analyzing advantages and disadvantages and then provide suggestions on curriculum,teaching reform and campus culture construction.The following two questions will be answered.What are the critical thinking disposition and skills of English majors in agriculture and forestry universities?Are there differences in critical thinking disposition and skills among students in four grades?This study used two Chinese version questionnaires of critical thinking disposition —CTDI-CV and critical thinking skills—CCTST to conduct a cross-sectional study on CT of students in four grades.Research findings were the following.Firstly,concerning critical thinking disposition,students generally had a positive disposition,which was weaker than that of other Chinese college students.The specific performance was that open-mindedness,analyticity,cognitive maturity and inquisitiveness were positive,while self-confidence,systematicity and truth-seeking were ambivalent.Concerning critical thinking skills,students were generally at a moderate level,which was not high or low in the range of Chinese college students.The five sub-skills were analysis,deduction,inference,induction,and evaluation from strong to weak.Secondly,concerning critical thinking disposition,there was no significant difference in total score of four grades,but the score of lower grades was positive,while the upper grades ambivalent.There was a significant difference in analyticity between freshmen and seniors and between sophomores and seniors.Concerning critical thinking skills,the total score and five sub-skills' scores of the seniors were significantly different from the other three grades.Based on results above and characteristics of agriculture and forestry universities,this paper revealed factors that might influence CT development in terms of curriculum,students,teachers and environment.On this basis,following suggestions were put forward: correctly handle the relationship between skills curriculum and CT development,and reduce the skill curriculum accordingly;improve the quality of students,enhance students' consciousness of CT importance,and pay attention to CT development of seniors;change the role of traditional teachers and reform traditional teaching methods;increase opportunities for social practice activities that help to develop CT.The research results might have positive reversal effects on foreign language teaching and increase the perspective for CT research at the same time.