An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Critical English Reading Strategies Training On Students' Critical Thinking In Senior High School

Critical thinking is regarded as one of the most important abilities required in the21 st century.The High School English Curriculum Standards(2017)points out that the objectives of learning English are to cultivate students' core qualities and competence,among which CT is a key one.It is commonly recognized that CT is composed of critical thinking disposition and critical thinking skills.Based on constructivism learning theory and the four resources model,This study aims to explore the effects of critical reading strategies training on students' critical thinking in senior high school.To be specific,the two research questions are addressed as follows:(1)Can critical reading strategies training improve senior high school students' critical thinking disposition?(2)Can critical reading strategies training facilitate senior high school students' critical thinking skills? If yes,in what aspects? If not,what may be the reasons?This study is an empirical study,four participants including two boys and two girls from a science class in senior 2 took part in this study,all of them have high level English proficiency.After 14 weeks' critical reading strategies training,the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version and Critical Thinking Skills Test were employed to measure differences in CTD and CTS before and after the training.The major findings of this research are summarized as follows:(1)CRS training can improve students' CTD,especially in truth-seeking,analyticity,systematicity,CT confidence and inquisitiveness ability.(2)The training of CRS can facilitate students' CTS,especially in explanation,evaluation and inference ability.However,the students' critical thinking skills of analysis and interpretation are not improved significantly.To sum up,the training of CRS in senior high school is conducive to cultivating students' CT.Therefore,it is of great necessity to advocate and carry out CRS training in reading so that the students' CT will be improved in the long run.