A Correlational Study Of Senior High School Students' Critical Thinking Disposition And Their English Reading Achievement

Since Chinese students lack critical thinking,more and more scholars dive into the study of critical thinking.In the educational field,many studies are centered on improving college students' critical thinking ability.However,studies of the correlation between senior high school students' critical thinking disposition and their English reading achievement are rare to be found.Considering the important role that English reading and CT play in the process of senior high school students' English learning,this thesis aims to examine the correlation of senior high school students' critical thinking disposition and their English reading achievement.Hopefully,the findings will bring some valuable implications for the front-line English teachers and provide researchers with more useful empirical data.Based on Facione's critical thinking disposition theory and combined with the question types of reading comprehension of the college entrance exam,this study adopts quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore senior high school students' critical thinking disposition and its relationship with English reading achievement.The study mainly discusses the following three research questions:(1)What is senior high school students' critical thinking disposition? Are there any gender difference in CTD?(2)What is the overall situation of senior high school students' English reading achievement in different types of questions of reading comprehension in NEMT?(3)Is there any correlation between senior high school students' critical thinking disposition and their English reading achievement?The participants of the study are 123 Grade 2 senior high school students from a high school of Dali,Yunnan province.Firstly,they got involved in English reading test that was chosen from NEMT.After collecting reading scores,questionnaires were distributed to the students.The instrument is a Chinese version altered by Peng Meici(2004)from California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory(CCTDI).Finally,10 students among them were interviewed,which served as a supplement of the study.The results of data analysis indicate:(1)High school students' CTD is in arelatively low level.They show positive disposition in inquisitiveness and open-mindedness and negative disposition in truth-seeking and systematicity.As for gender,female outscores the male counterparts in maturity and inquisitiveness,while males perform better in systematicity and analyticity than females;(2)Senior high school students' English reading scores are comparatively low.Students perform better in question of details and summarizing,while they are not good at inferring and guessing words.(3)From the macro perspective,the correlation between senior high school students' CTD and their English reading achievement is not apparent;from the micro perspective,there is a significant correlation between question of details and systematicity.Also,an apparent correlation is found between question of word guessing and analyticity.Conclusions and enlightenments can be drawn from the results:(1)Senior high school students' CTD needs improving.It is urgent for English teachers to cultivate senior high school students' CTD,especially in truth-seeking and systematicity;(2)considering the gender difference in CTD,English teachers need to employ different instructions to improve critical thinking ability of girls and boys;(3)English teachers need to apply critical reading models to English teaching to improve students' critical thinking ability;(4)English teachers need to adopt the types of questions that can help improve students' CTA in English reading teaching;(5)English teachers are supposed to design various activities to arouse students' deep thinking in the reading class.