A Study On The Cultivation Of Students' Critical Thinking Ability In Senior High School English Reading Teaching

Since 1980 s,“Critical thinking” is regarded as one of the important goals of higher education in Western countries.In recent years,cultivating critical thinking ability has also drawn the attention of domestic scholars.Critical thinking ability is to understand and absorb information critically in social culture.Individuals have independent judgment ability to evaluate information.And it can give more alternative explanations to one thing(Liu Rude,2000).We are in the society which is full of information.Facing massive and complicated information senior high school students need to improve their critical thinking ability so that they can make sound judgments and correct choices instead of following others views blindly.In the process of senior high school English reading teaching,teaching students critical reading strategies,raising their critical reading awareness and cultivating their critical thinking skills should arouse the attention of teachers and students.Based on the previous studies,this research is guided by constructivist learning theory,critical discourse analysis theory and learning motivation theory and clarifies the connotation of critical thinking and critical reading.Combined the understanding of critical thinking and critical reading with critical reading strategies,the author did a three-month comparative teaching experiment in two different classes in order to explore: How to train students critical thinking ability in senior high school English reading teaching ? How to implement critical reading teaching in senior high school English reading teaching? Can critical reading teaching improve students English reading performance?In this study,101 students from two classes of Grade 9 and 17 in Jigang Senior High School of Shandong Province were selected as the research subjects.Through literature analysis and classroom observation,a student questionnaire was prepared for the two classes.Students are issued in an anonymous manner to know students' reading habits.In order to test whether these students' reading level has a big difference,the author selected the results of the reading comprehension part of the student's monthly examination paper as student's pretest reading score.The data analysis shows that the English reading scores of the two classes are basically equivalent and can be used as the two subgroups of this study.To ensure the objectiveconditions that teachers and teaching materials are same in the two classes,the control class adopts traditional reading teaching and focuses on vocabulary teaching and grammar learning.The experimental class conducts critical reading teaching once a week.The students will learn some critical reading strategies in advance,followed by critical reading instruction.After the teaching experiment,quantitative analysis was performed on the scores to test whether the experimental class reading performance was improved after the experiment.In the experimental class,questionnaires were issued again to know the use of reading strategies,and interviews were used to learn about students' attitudes towards critical reading teaching.The experimental results show that critical English reading teaching can improve students' English reading performance,and enable them to master critical reading strategies and apply them to the reading process.In senior high school English reading teaching,teachers and students maintain a harmonious and democratic relationship,select appropriate reading materials,allow students to learn cooperative learning and dare to question,which can develop students' critical thinking ability.It is important to implement critical reading teaching in senior high school,which is an effective way to cultivate students' critical thinking ability.At the same time,critical reading teaching will inspire students to learn,which not only improves students reading performance but also lays a good foundation for follow-up study.Cultivating critical thinking ability is also in line with the community's demand for innovative talents.