Empirical Study On College Students’ Critical Thinking Disposition In College English Teaching

We are living in an information era in which knowledge has been updated witheach passing day. Therefore, the aims of higher education in21stcentury not only lie indiffusing knowledge, transmitting information and disseminating technology, but alsostimulating college students’ curiosity and desire for knowledge, developing their abilityto acquire knowledge, and eventually cultivating the talent with personalized thoughtsand intelligences. As an effective way of facilitaing individuals to shape theirquestioning spirit and develop their exploring ability, critical thinking has become oneof the key qualities which the high-quality innovative talents ought to be in possessionof in21stcentury.Critical thinking, based on reasonable doubts, is a kind of advanced intellectualactivities, in which people take advangtages of different ways and methods, such asquestioning, analyzing, explaining, comparing, inferring, judging and demonstrating, tomake correct and probable judgements on the information’s sources, backgrounds,causes, characters and values. Generally speaking, critical thinking consists of criticalthinking skills and critical thinking dispositions. To be specific, critical thinking skillsrefers to classifying the information, making correct judgement on the coherence,accuracy and reliability of the information, and drawing a logical evaluation or giving arational explanation. While, critical thinking disposition involves different kinds oftraits, such as critical thinking confidence, open mind, cognitive maturity, analytic skills,truth-seeking, intellectual curiosity and systematization capacity.This paper mainly focuses on college students’ critical thinking disposition. On thebasis of three different questionnaires, the author investigates and analyzes over twohundreds sophomores’ current status of ciritcal thinking disposition. Those studentscome from seven different institutes of a university in Chongqing. In order to effectivelyanalyze the factors influcing testees’ critical thinking disposition, the author also madesurveys on college students’ personal views of their college English learning. What’smore, some college English teachers are also investigated on current teaching situationand existing problems.The surveys show that the factors, influencing the critical thinking disposition, areas follows:“memory-based learning culture”,“the aims of college English teaching”,“College English Teaching about basic skills failing to develop the college students’ critical thinking awareness”, and “college students’ learning motivation and learningbeliefs”.In the light of the comprehensive analysis of above influencial factors, thefollowing measures are suggested by the author, including building up modern collegeEnglish teaching culture and environment; explicitly stipulating the demands ofcultivating critical thinking disposition in College English Curriculum Requirements;cultivating college students’ ideological content and criticalness when teaching theirlanguage skills; constructing favorable learning environment through reflective teaching;creating a harmonious relationship between teacher and students; fostering students’intrinsic motivation; and renewing educational beliefs and concept so as to promote thecultivation and development of college students’ critical thinking disposition throughcollege English teaching and learning.