A Study On The Impact Of Questioning Types On Students’ Critical Thinking Skills In Senior High School English Reading Class Under The New English Curriculum Standard

It is pointed out in English Curriculum Standards for Senior High school(2017)that high school English teaching in the new era should pay more attention to the elevation of students’ thinking quality through language learning.Critical thinking,as an indispensable part of thinking quality,has attracted much attention.There are many factors affecting students’ critical thinking in English reading class.As a kind of teaching method,reasonable teachers questioning can trigger students’ critical thinking.In addition,different types of questioning also act a vital role in fostering critical thinking.However,the existing research mainly concerns college students and the correlation of the two elements.Less attention is paid to the critical thinking skills in high school English classes.Therefore,based on the investigation of status quo of teacher questioning and the level of students’ critical thinking skills,this study aims to further explore the impact of different types of teacher questioning on students’ critical thinking skills and answer the following three questions:(1)What is the status quo of teachers’ questioning types in English reading class in senior high school?(2)What is the status quo of students’ critical thinking skills in English reading class in senior high school?(3)How do different types of teachers’ question influence students’ different critical thinking skills?This study selected two English teachers and their four teaching classes from Y School in S City,Hubei Province as the research participants,and conducted a two-month classroom observation on their English reading class.California Critical Thinking Skills Test(Chinese Version)is applied to investigate students’ critical thinking skills level.Interviews are conducted with teachers and students.After analyzing the data,the results are as follows:(1)The number of questions used in reading class is generally small and teachers’ distribution of question types is unbalanced.Low-level questions about knowledge and understanding are frequently used,while high-level questions are rarely used.(2)The critical thinking skills of senior high school students are mostly at medium level.Among the six sub-skills,students possess a higher level of evaluation and explanation skills and a lower level of interpretation and analysis skills.(3)Teacher questioning has positive effects on students’ critical thinking skills,among which low-level questions have less impact,while high-level questions have more obvious effect.Different types of questioning also have diverse influences on each sub-skill.Based on the results,some implications for high school English reading teaching are put forward.Teachers should update the teaching belief to promote students’ thinking while imparting knowledge to them.Teachers are supposed to delve the teaching materials and optimize the teaching content timely according to the learning objectives.Different question types are expected to be applied appropriately in class to cultivate students’ critical thinking skills.