Research On Strategies For Cultivating The Critical Thinking Ability Of English Majors Based On Production-oriented Approach

In recent years,scholars have become more and more aware of the importance of cultivating critical thinking ability.In January 2018,China’s Ministry of Education issued the first “national standard” of teaching quality in China’s higher education field,which made clearer requirements for the cultivation of students’ critical thinking ability.Many scholars have begun to pay attention to the research of critical thinking ability.However,by combing the domestic and foreign studies,it can be found that the research objects of these studies are mainly concentrated at the senior high school level,and the research objects of college students,especially English majors,are few.In addition,the strategies of cultivating critical thinking ability put forward by most research institutes are scattered and lack of systematic teaching methods.On the other hand,the phenomenon of “input from the output” is common in English teaching at present.In order to overcome such phenomenon in foreign language teaching,Professor Wen Qiufang put forward a theoretical system of “production-oriented approach(POA)” that there are three teaching processes: driving,facilitating,and evaluating.The tasks in these processes contribute to cultivating critical thinking ability.Therefore,this paper attempts to combine the cultivation of speculative ability with the POA.Based on the theoretical system of critical thinking skills model and POA,this paper carries out English writing teaching experiment in English writing class and explores the path of cultivating critical thinking ability of English majors in colleges and universities.The following research questions will be addressed:(1)What is the current situation of critical thinking ability of junior English majors in Chinese universities?(2)How does English writing teaching based on production-oriented approach affect students’ critical thinking ability?(3)What are the strategies for cultivating English majors’ critical thinking ability?In this study,a total of 190 students from four classes of English majors in a normal university in Fujian Province were taken as the research objects,and an eight-week English writing teaching experiment was conducted.Before the experiment,the author investigated the current situation of English majors’ critical thinking ability by using the adapted CTDI-CV scale as a research tool.In the experiment,the author used POA in the experimental class to carry out the writing teaching experiment.After the experiment,the author conducted the post-test of the experiment,collected the data and analyzed the data by SPSS25.0 to get the results.The research found that:(1)The pre-test results of students’ critical thinking ability in experimental class and control class are at contradictory level,and there is no significant difference.(2)After the writing teaching experiment,the average level of students’ critical thinking ability in the experimental class is higher than that in the control class,which shows that the production-oriented writing teaching can effectively improve the critical thinking ability of English majors.To sum up,the author confirms the effectiveness and feasibility of using the POA to improve students’ critical thinking ability,and puts forward specific paths and suggestions for cultivating students’ critical thinking ability in English writing teaching based on the experimental results.