An Investigative Study On Critical Thinking Of Senior High School Students In English Class

Critical thinking contains both critical thinking skills and critical thinking disposition. Since the middle of the 20 th century, western countries represented by the United States firstly have done investigations into critical thinking and have developed it. At the beginning of this century, Chinese scholars began to study critical thinking, and emphasized it in English language teaching. At that time, the aim of English teaching in China, to a great extent, was to teach language points and increase the accuracy in language tests rather than concentrate on cultivating students’ language skills and critical thinking. In recent years, along with the increasing competition of talents, there are more and more studies on cultivating critical thinking abroad and at home. However, studies combining critical thinking with English teaching in senior high school are not adequate.This study aims to investigate the critical thinking in English learning in high school. The research questions are as follows:1. What is the situation of senior high school students’ critical thinking in English learning?2. Is critical thinking disposition correlated to English proficiency? Are critical thinking skills correlated to English proficiency?3. What are the differences in using critical thinking skills between high-score group and low-score group?121 participants in Grade Two from Shiji Senior High School in Huludao are investigated. Questionnaires and interviews are analyzed with SPSS17.0.The results show that students in high school are below medium level in critical thinking disposition. Students are not good at applying critical thinking skills in English learning especially the skill of evaluation. There is a significant correlation between English scores and critical thinking skills. However, English scores have no correlation to critical thinking disposition except open-mindedness. Compared with low-score group, high-score group perform better in analysis, evaluation and self-regulation skills. Therefore, students’ analysis, evaluation and self-regulation skills should be strengthened in English teaching in order to improve students’ English proficiency.