Training Students’ Critical Thinking In Senior English Reading Class

In recent years educational experts at home and abroad have paid more and more attention tothe research of critical thinking, but in the traditional teaching of our country, the application ofcritical thinking to teaching is not so popular, especially in English reading teaching. In this paper,the author simply analyses the significance of critical thinking,the concept of critical thinking andthe features and other basic theories of critical thinking. Afterwards, basing on the survey on thepresent situation of high school students’ critical thinking, the author analyze the necessity andfeasibility of cultivating critical thinking in the teaching of English. The author also provides somepractical examples to probe into the teaching strategies to train the students’ ability of criticalthinking. The paper is divided into four parts as follows:The first part elaborates the research significance of critical thinking, the concept of criticalthinking and the features of critical thinking and other basic theories. Critical thinking is a processof independent thinking, through which we can decide to accept or question the authenticity，accuracy, process, theory, arguments, background and the evaluation of the learned knowledge.The second part analyses the possible reasons for critical thinking among the senior studentson the basis of the fact that there is a lack of it, demonstrating the necessity and feasibility oftraining students’ critical thinking in English teaching.The third part expounds the cultivation of critical thinking in English reading teachingstrategies and manages to raise the students’ good critical thinking skills from the six aspects suchas mining the contents of teaching materials, building reasoning classroom teaching atmosphere,seizing the opportunities of the cultivation of critical thinking, and breaking mindset, questioning topromote thinking, extending the text and opening up the students’ thinking.The fourth part concludes the students’ subjective assessment of critical thinking teachingmode. Through the questionnaire the author figures out if the students are qualified with the abilityof critical thinking.