Correlation Between English Majors' Critical Thinking Disposition And Reading Comprehension

Research on critical thinking, a focal point in western countries, esp. in United States since 1960s, only got started at home about 10 years ago and most studies are carried out in the fields of psychology, logic, education and nursing. Although the phenomenon of English majors'extreme scarcity of critical thinking has attracted some scholars'attention, relevant studies in the field of second language acquisition are rather rare, with the few studies mainly focusing on speaking and writing. Namely, research on the correlation between critical thinking disposition and reading comprehension still remains untouched.With Facione's research on critical thinking disposition as the theoretical framework, considering characteristics of reading test at home, this study tries to explore the characteristics of English majors'critical thinking disposition and their reading comprehension, and probe into the correlation between them, with special attention to the impact of gender and language proficiency in these regards. We mainly touch upon the following topics both quantitatively and qualitatively: 1) the characteristics of participants'critical thinking disposition; 2) the characteristics of their reading comprehension; 3) the correlation between English majors'critical thinking disposition and reading comprehension.Participants in this study are 125 sophomores majoring in English or English Education in a university in Jiangsu Province. Mainly they took two tests: 1) the Chinese version of California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (translated by Peng Meici); 2) reading comprehension test. Besides, they took a mock TEM4 (Test for English Majors, Band 4), the result of which is regarded as their English proficiency. According to the statistical analysis of the 109 valid questionnaires, 12 students were selected to participate in the in-depth interview.Findings of the study are as follows: 1) Generally speaking, English majors'critical thinking disposition is rather weak. As for the different dimensions of critical thinking disposition, participants are comparatively strongest in Maturity while weakest in Critical Thinking Confidence. There is no significant difference between the male and the female in critical thinking disposition, while the difference between high achievers and low achievers is significant. 2) Generally, English majors'reading comprehension is intermediate. Participants score highest in inferring the author's Attitude and View, and in Reasoning and Judgment; they score lowest in understanding Fact and Detail, and in Semantic Comprehension. There is no significant difference between the male and the female in this regard while the difference is significant between high achievers and low achievers. 3) The correlation between critical thinking disposition and reading comprehension is positive, though the coefficient is low, with the female's higher than the male's, and high achievers'higher than the low achievers'.