An Investigation On The Cultivation Of Senior High School Students’ Critical Thinking Ability Based On The English Key Competencies

“Core Literacy for Chinese Students Development ” points out that “critical questioning” is an important content of the development of students’ core literacy.The ability of critical thinking,as an important part of English key competencies,is an indispensable character for students to think independently,analyze comprehensively,make rational judgments,and make reasonable evaluations when they enter the society.It is also an important aspect of cultivating students’ English key competencies.The senior high school is a key period for students to develop their thinking habits,so English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017)has definitely taken key competencies as the main training objectives in senior high school English teaching.However,due to the long-term impact of exam-oriented education,English teachers pay more attention to the acquisition of students’ language knowledge and skills but ignore the cultivation of critical thinking.Therefore,it is necessary to research how to cultivate students’ critical thinking in English teaching of senior high schools from the perspective of the English key competencies.In this research,first of all,the author discusses the status of critical thinking at home and abroad by reading the literature,and analyzes the connotation and relationship with English key competencies.Secondly,this paper takes 109 students in two classes with equivalent English level and 14 English teachers in Y Middle School as research subjects.Questionnaires and interview are made to research the following three questions:(1)What is the current situation of cultivating students’ critical thinking in senior high school English teaching ?(2)What are the reasons for the problems of cultivating students’ critical thinking in senior high school English Teaching?(3)What are the strategies to cultivate students’ critical thinking under the English Key Competencies?The research results are as follows:(1)the whole students’ critical thinking consciousness and ability are low,especially in terms of analytical ability,cognitive maturity,curiosity,and self-confidence;teachers have insufficient guidance and training for students’ thinking,and they lack the consciousness of training students’ critical thinking and the teaching ability of critical thinking.(2)The reasons for the above situation: The training of critical thinking is not included in the teaching objectives;Teachers are lack of knowledge of critical thinking;There is no in-depth training of thinking in teaching methods;The method of teaching evaluation is single.As for the suggestions,combining relative theory and practice based on the above research results,the author proposes the strategies from the following four aspects to cultivate students’ critical thinking ability under the English key competencies: Implementing the cultivation of critical thinking in the teaching objectives;Training the ability of critical thinking in the professional development of teachers;Improving the teaching methods of developing critical thinking;adding the evaluation of critical thinking in the assessment system.