A Study Of The Correlation Between Senior High School Students' Critical Thinking Disposition And Intercultural Awareness

Language is the carrier of thinking.Intercultural communication competence not only requires strong foreign language communication competence,but also needs critical thinking ability.Sun(2015)clearly proposed the view that critical thinking ability can be effectively promoted through the exploration of intercultural communication competence.In contrast,intercultural communication competence can be promoted through the improvement of critical thinking ability.However,most of the researches in China focus on the current situation of critical thinking ability and intercultural communication competence and how to cultivate them.There are few studies that combine critical thinking ability with intercultural communication competence in China.But both of them are general concepts consisting of multiple dimensions,which need various tools to measure.Therefore,the author chooses one of the dimensions-critical thinking disposition and intercultural awareness,and studies their correlation to explore the influence of critical thinking disposition on foreign language teaching and intercultural awareness.This study attempts to answer the following three problems :(1)What is the current situation of senior high school students' critical thinking disposition?(2)What is the current situation of senior high school students' intercultural awareness?(3)Is there a correlationbetween critical thinking disposition and intercultural awareness of senior high school students? If yes,which two dimensions are most correlated?In order to answer the above research questions,240 senior high school students which were from the Affiliated High School to Inner Mongolia Normal University in Hohhot were selected as subjects in this research.Four classes were surveyed,two liberal arts classes and two science classes.Data were collected through Critical Thinking Disposition Questionnaire and Intercultural Awareness Questionnaire,the data of questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 22.0,after that,eight students were interviewed by the researcher.The results show that: 1.The critical thinking disposition of senior high school students is at a moderately high level(M=3.539),seven dimensions of critical thinking disposition are also at a moderately high level,among them,the open-mindedness(M=3.842)is at a high level.Science students perform better than liberal arts students in critical thinking disposition,but there is no significant difference between them in critical thinking disposition.2.The intercultural awareness of senior high school students is at a moderately high level(M=3.792),five dimensions of intercultural awareness are also at a moderately high level,among them,cultural integration(M=4.04)and respect for cultural difference(M=4.08)are at a high level.Liberal arts students perform better than science students in intercultural awareness,but there is nosignificant difference between them in intercultural awareness.3.Critical thinking disposition and intercultural awareness are correlated and the correlation coefficient is 0.499,so there is a moderate correlation between critical thinking disposition and intercultural awareness.Among them,the correlation between open-mindedness and respect for cultural difference is the highest,the correlation coefficient is 0.503,the correlation between truth-seeking and cultural integration is the lowest,and the correlation coefficient is 0.181.Finally,based on the research results,the researcher gives some suggestions for the development of senior high school students' critical thinking disposition and intercultural awareness,and also discusses the limitations of the research and future research directions.