An Empirical Study On Developing Non-English Majors’ Critical Thinking Ability Of Writing From The Perspective Of Pragmatic Presupposition

Writing is an important part in English teaching and learning,involving language,content,and structure.In writing,in addition to basic language knowledge and skills,students need to have critical thinking ability so that they are able to write an essay with clear ideas,rich contents,coherent and logical structures.Critical thinking ability is essential for writing,and the lack of such ability will lead to serious problems in the structures and contents of writing.Pragmatic presupposition can help to establish a framework for the further development of discourse.When the author presupposes the contents and structure of the article,the consideration,analysis and judgement of context,viewpoints,target readers,and information organization methods reflect the use of critical thinking ability.Therefore,in this study,non-English majors’ critical thinking ability of writing is developed from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition,so as to improve their English writing performance.The following research questions are addressed in the study:(1)What is the current status of non-English majors’critical thinking ability?(2)How does the lack of critical thinking ability influence writing?(3)Can their critical thinking ability of writing be developed from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition?This study adopts qualitative analysis.126 non-English major freshmen from two natural classes in a key university of Shandong Province participate in it,and they are divided into experimental group(N=66)and control group(N=60)randomly.Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test is used to assess the critical thinking ability of the subjects.Then,the experimental group receives a ten-week teaching instruction from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition,but the experimental group and the control group remain the same in terms of teacher,teaching materials,hours,contents,procedures,and progress,etc.Independent Samples T-test and One-way ANOVA are conducted on the means of both groups in pretest,post test,and delayed test.The major findings of the empirical study are summarized as follows.First,the results of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test indicate that most subjects(95%)have inadequate or limited critical thinking ability.Second,through the evaluation of the essays written by subjects in exercises,it is found that the lack of such ability leads to digression,repetitive and lengthy description,and unconvincing arguments,as well as contents without width or depth and illogical or incoherent structures.Finally,the results show that the subjects in the experimental group improve their critical thinking ability of writing,because there are significant differences between the means of the two groups in post test(Sig=.000)and there are also obvious differences between the pretest and post test of the experimental group(Sig=.000).However,in the delayed test,there is no obvious difference between the means of the two groups(Sig=.266)because the instruction stops and subjects are not proficient in presupposing.Therefore,it is concluded that the non-English majors lack critical thinking ability,which has certain impacts on the writing performance.Their critical thinking ability of writing can be developed from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition,whose effects,however,can not last for a long time.The instruction should be strengthened constantly.The study on the development of critical thinking ability of writing will promote the application of pragmatic presupposition to English writing teaching.The findings of the study can offer some implications for college English teachers to adopt effective methods in class,so as to improve students’ critical thinking ability of writing and their English writing achievements.