An Action Research On Cultivating Critical Thinking In High School English Reading Lessons

Critical thinking, viewed as a desirable professional attribute and educational outcome, has received widespread attention both at home and abroad. An increasing number of researchers have realized the importance of incorporating critical thinking into specific disciplines so as to promote mutual development. Critical thinking skills are needed in English reading comprehension where students have to make a decision after analyzing the text, evaluating statements, inferring, deducing, etc. However, up till now, there is a clear lack of empirical research or action research on the effects of critical thinking on the English reading comprehension abilities of high school students.Based on the related theories of critical thinking, the 9 guidelines of choosing teaching materials by Nuttall and Paul and Elder’s Critical Thinking Model, the current research aimed to determine the effect of critical thinking on high school students’reading comprehension abilities in English through infusing critical thinking into high school English reading classes.This action research, using a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research designs, examined the performance of two groups offreshmen(74 students) in XH High School in Suzhou. Based on the purposes of the study, the CCTST and an English reading comprehension test were administered to the participants before the research. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the critical thinking skills of the two groups. After incorporating critical thinking into the English reading classes of the experimental group, another English reading comprehension test was administered to both groups. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the scores of the two groups, which indicated a positive effect of critical thinking on high school students English reading comprehension abilities.