Cultivating Students’ Critical Thinking Through Class Questioning In Junior High School English Reading Class

Critical thinking,as an essential part of core literacy,has always been a hot topic in foreign language education research.Classroom questioning is not only a major form of communication between teachers and students,but also guides students to deeply analyze the text and promote their thinking level.At present,how to cultivate students’ critical thinking through classroom questioning has become the focus of researchers and teachers.This study employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative research approaches to focus on discussing the following three questions:(1)What are teachers’ perceptions of class questioning for critical thinking skills cultivation in English reading class?(2)What aspects of students’ critical thinking skills does the teacher cultivate through class questioning?(3)What are the main factors affecting teachers’ class questioning for critical thinking skills cultivation in English reading class?The results are as follows: Firstly,teachers hold the view that class questioning has a positive influence on the cultivation of students’ critical thinking,especially for students’ analysis and interpretation skills.But teachers lack professional training in critical thinking teaching,which also needs the joint effort of schools and experts.Secondly,teachers focus more on students’ interpretation and explanation skills through class questioning,but pay less attention to cultivating students’ self-regulation skills.Thirdly,there are three major factors affecting teachers’ class questioning for critical thinking skills cultivation in English reading class including teaching methods,teachers’ cognition,and teachers’ attitudes.In conclusion,the author suggests that teachers should strengthen the systematic learning of critical thinking theory and improve their awareness of critical thinking cultivation;teachers should create critical thinking training environment,balance the proportion of language teaching and critical thinking training in reading teaching.