Research On Critical Thinking Of English Reading In Senior High School

21st century is regarded as “knowledge-based era” as well as “information explosion” one,featuring that overwhelming amount of knowledge and information spreads in daily life.People are easily distracted by irrelevant information.In the face of such Information era,critical reading has received more and more concern from learners and scholars both at home and abroad.This study attempts to figure out the present situation of senior high school students? critical thinking ability and apply critical reading into English reading to foster students? critical thinking ability.The study selects 126 senior high school students as the research participants to find out:(1)What is the current situation of senior high school students? application of critical reading skills and critical thinking disposition?(2)What kind of critical reading skills and critical thinking disposition have senior high school students mastered?(3)what can be done to cultivate senior high school students? critical thinking in English reading?Through the data analysis of the questionnaires and students? interview,the major findings shows a glimpse of the current situation of senior high school students? critical thinking ability to the public.Firstly,the students? critical thinking ability in senior high school has arrived at the medium level,and.Secondly,students have a high talent for critical reading skills such as prediction,analysis and inference as well as critical thinking disposition like analyticity,systematicity,self-confidence,and inquisitiveness.However,students in English reading seldom use two critical reading skills such as summary and evaluation,and their performance on truth-seeking,open-mindedness and maturity is not satisfied.Thirdly,students are not familiar with the core concept of critical thinking,but they all highly agreed that critical thinking is useful and essential for English reading comprehension.Strategies for cultivating critical thinking ability are explored in the way of four-step process: Clear the question;Gather the information;Apply the information;assess the choices.Besides,the author also shows an example about how to conduct critical reading teaching to cultivate students? critical thinking ability and improve their reading proficiency.