Research On The Design Of Senior High School English Listening And Speaking Teaching Activities Aimed At The Cultivation Of Thinking Traits

According to General High School English Curriculum Standards(2017 edition,revised in 2020),thinking traits,which indicate the ability and level of logic,critical and innovative thinking,are psychological characteristics of key competence of English.The development of thinking traits can help students to develop their analytical and problem-solving abilities,to observe and comprehend the world from a variety of cultural angles,and to make correct values.At present,plenty of research on thinking traits focus on the current situation of cultivation from the perspective of key competence of English.At the same time,teaching methods in a certain course type,most of which are reading and writing courses,are also the hot-spots.However,These studies are not systematic and in-depth enough to some degree.The purpose of this study is to:(1)explore the connotation of thinking traits and the present absence of the cultivation of thinking traits in listening and speaking class.(2)focus on the design of teaching activities in the listening and speaking classroom.(3)verify the effectiveness of teaching activities through both qualitative and quantitative methods.Guided by Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,the constructivist theory and Krashen’s input hypothesis,this research is conducted on the basis of the English Curriculum Standards for General Senior High School and the English textbooks for senior high school students published by People’s Education Press.The experiment was conducted in a regular high school in Liuzhou,Guangxi.The main research methods adopted in the study are literature research method,questionnaire survey,interview method,experimental research method and statistical analysis method.There are two problems to be solved:(1)What is the impact of teaching activities to improve thinking traits on students’ thinking ability and the level of listening and speaking?(2)In what way can the listening and speaking teaching activities which are conducive to the development of thinking traits be applied into classroom teaching?First,the author uses a questionnaire to investigate the current situation of listening and teaching teaching in the school.As for students,the lack of language knowledge,learning ability and cultural awareness as well as negative psychological factors have an adverse impact on the cultivation of thinking traits in listening and speaking teaching;as for teachers,the lagging teaching concept,outdated teaching mode,deficient real context,over-strong classroom presupposition and insufficient teaching of learning strategies make it difficult to cultivate thinking traits.Based on the current situation,the author tries to propose some teaching activities in listening and speaking class to improve the ability of thinking traits.An experimental research was conducted and the effectiveness of the activities was verified by qualitative and quantitative analysis.60 students in Class 14 Grade 2,60 students in Class 18 Grade 2 are selected as the research objects;self-assessment scale of thinking traits,listening and speaking test paper and interviews are utilized as research tools.Considering the concept of English learning activities as the foundation of teaching activities design,the author puts forward four principles of teaching activity design revolving around the Six Elements of Course Content,and summarizes the teaching process which aims at promoting thinking traits combining with related theories.Finally,four kinds of progressive activities are proposed.They are learning and understanding activities,which include creating situations,using 5W(1H)and refining key points;applicable and practical activities,which include gradual questions,micro-lesson assistance and new knowledge application;transferring and innovative activities,which include independent exploration,expanding discussion and real output.Combining with multi-evaluation,the activities are used to enhance the ability of thinking traits.Based on the data analysis,it is found that the post-test academic scores of experimental students are higher than their pretest academic scores.Meanwhile,the post-test results of the thinking traits questionnaire of experimental students are also better than their pretest results.Besides,The experimental students behave better than the control students in logic,criticalness and innovation.In conclusion,the experimental results show that the teaching activities designed in the study can not only improve students’ thinking traits but also enhance their listening and speaking ability.