A Research On The Influence Of English Reading Teaching In Senior High School On Students’ Critical Thinking Ability ——Taking The "Reading Circle" Model As An Example

As the goal of education,especially higher education,critical thinking is gradually entering the public’s field of vision.It emphasizes getting rid of stereotypes and looking at problems with a dialectical perspective.As an important skill,the development of critical thinking ability provides the impetus and foundation for the cultivation of innovative thinking.At present,most of the research objects on critical thinking ability are college students,and there is not enough attention to the critical thinking ability of high school students.The best way to cultivate this ability is to combine it with subject teaching.Therefore,based on Input Hypothesis,Learning Community Theory and ZPD Theory,this article try to introduce a new teaching model----"Reading Circle" into English reading in senior high school,exploring its impact on high school students’ critical thinking ability,and aims to answer the following three Questions:1.From the perspective of interpretation,analysis,evaluation,inference,explanation,and self-regulation,what is the current situation of senior high school students’ critical thinking ability in English reading?2.What impact does the use of "reading circles" in English reading teaching have on the critical thinking ability of senior high school students?3.How does the use of "reading circles" in English reading teaching affect the critical thinking ability of senior high school students?The research objects of this study are 82 students in High School F in H City,including 42 students in Grade 2,Class 6 as experimental class and 40 students in Grade2,Class 10 as control class.The students that are taught by the same English teacher in the two classes are in the same level.The experimental class adopts the Reading Circle mode,and the control class adopts the traditional reading teaching mode.In order to better solve the research problem,this study adopts three research methods: test method,questionnaire survey method and interview method,and uses SPSS 21 for data analysis.The findings of the study: First,according to 2.5～3.5 points of the pre-experiment questionnaire average and combined with the interview results,it shows that the critical thinking ability of high school students at this stage is generally at a moderate level.Second,according to the interview results and combined with the experimental class’ s reading score increased by 2.76 points,the average improvement value of the six ability dimensions in the questionnaire was all greater than 0.1,indicating that the reading circle model has a positive impact on the critical thinking ability of high school students.Third,the corresponding significance values of the dimensions of interpretation,explanation,analysis and inference in the questionnaire before and after the experiment are all less than 0.05,indicating that the four abilities have been significantly improved.The significance values of the dimensions of evaluation and self-regulation ability were both greater than 0.05,indicating that these two abilities were slightly improved.The research implications are as follows: First,insist on taking students as the center and create opportunities for the development of their critical thinking abilities.Second,improve teachers’ own critical thinking ability.Third,encourage students to think,develop and improve their critical thinking ability.Fourth,use evaluation feedback to promote the improvement of students’ critical thinking ability.It is hoped that this study can provide some references for the teaching of "reading circle" and the cultivation of students’ critical thinking ability.