A Study On Critical Thinking Factors Influencing College Students' English Argumentative Writing

This study uses the combination of "Critical thinking: Knowledge,skills and attitudes" and "argumentative writing ability questionnaire” of Stella Cottrell.The college students are evaluated from four dimensions,including three subitems of critical thinking ability and argumentative writing ability.On the basis of relevance research,a research framework for integrating three dimensions of critical thinking ability and writing ability is constructed.It is used as a reference for judging college students' argumentative writing ability and guiding their critical thinking ability in English argumentative writing.Based on the survey of College Students' English argumentative writing ability,this study investigated the correlation between the overall critical thinking ability and the ability of thinking ability in the questionnaire.The three research questions in this study are as follows:(1)How are the current Chinese college students' overall critical thinking ability and the level of English argumentative writing?(2)Is there a correlation between college students' critical thinking ability and the subitems(knowledge,attitude and skills)with their English argumentative writing?(3)What are the main CT factors that affect college students' English argumentative writing the most?After the questionnaire survey was accomplished,the data were analyzed by SPSS22.0.The survey results showed that: the descriptive analysis of the questionnaire indicated that college students' ability of thinking is at a moderate level.The best part they grasp is the knowledge of critical thinking,followed by the attitude of critical thinking,and the worst part they grasp is the skills of critical thinking.The analysis showed that the writing level of college students' English argumentative papers is also at a middle level.This study also found that:(1)there is a strong correlation between students' English argumentative writing ability and critical thinking ability(knowledge,attitude and skills as a whole),which indicates that the overall level of students' critical thinking ability has a relatively positive impact on their English argumentative writing.(2)there is a positive correlation between students' English argumentative writing ability and the subitems of critical thinking ability(knowledge,attitude and skills)respectively.The correlation coefficient between them from high to low are skills,attitude and knowledge,which indicates that the students' English argumentative thinking skills level correlates closest to the dimension of critical thinking skills.(3)multiple regression analysis shows that critical thinking skills are the decisive factors deciding the success or failure of college students' English argumentative writing.Generally speaking,the stronger students' ability of critical thinking is,the higher standard their English argumentative writing ability will be.The influence of critical thinking skills on English argumentative writing is the most obvious.Based on the above findings,this study puts forward some tips to the cultivation of critical thinking ability and the teaching practice of college students' English argumentative writing:(1)The descriptive analysis found that the students scored higher in knowledge and attitude dimensions,which indicates that the current college students have the potential to become critical thinkers,their positive attitude should be taken advantage of to improve other aspects of critical thinking ability.(2)In the process of cultivating students' critical thinking skills,it is necessary to combine the training of critical reading with it.(3)Students' critical thinking knowledge and attitude are higher than their critical thinking skills,but their correlation with writing is lower than that of critical thinking skills,teachers should consciously adjust the proportion of critical thinking skills in the process of teaching.Based on the findings of the survey,the author puts forward some practical suggestions for improving the writing level of College Students' English argumentative writing,hoping to provide some useful reference for subsequent research on the relevance of the ability of critical thinking and argumentative writing.But it should also be pointed out that there are some shortcomings in this study,and the author hopes that the follow-up study can be more optimized.