Research On The Correlation Between MA English Majors’ Critical Thinking Dispositions And Academic English Writing

The study of critical thinking has been paid more attention by Western countries,Hong Kong and Taiwan in our country,while the study in mainland started about three decades ago,especially in the fields of psychology,logic and nursing.Though the issue about whether foreign language students are lacking in critical thinking has been discussed by many domestic scholars,empirical studies are few.Critical Thinking Dispositions(CTD)and Critical Thinking Skills(CTS)are two indispensable dimensions of cultivating critical thinking ability.The concept of CTD was first defined by Delphi project group of America which was distinguished as positive or negative,and the mission of higher education is to prompt students’ positive CTD development.Most previous studies focused on the study of undergraduate students but MA(Master of Art)students have not got enough attention.However,MA students are more involved in higher conceptual works,especially in the process of academic English writing,which combines English language with the abilities of exploring,arguing and analyzing.On account of this situation,with Delphi’s research on CTD as theoretical framework,this study was conducted in both quantitative and qualitative methods and intended to explore the correlation between CTD and academic writing.The specific research questions are:(1)What is the status quo of MA English majors’ Critical Thinking Dispositions?(2)What are the features of MA English majors’ academic English writings?(3)What is the correlation between CTD and academic English writing?There were 120 participants majored in English from one university in Northeast area involved in this research.Firstly,CTDI-CV(translated by Peng Meici)was adopted as questionnaire to collect data about MA English majors’ current situation of CTD.Secondly,20 students who were selected according to the results of CTDI-CV offered their academic writings and the features were assessed.Finally,the author used SPSS to analyze the correlation and regression between CTD and academic writing.Four students participated in the semi-opened interviews and the results of which supplement the insufficient data from quantitative analysis.The results show that:(1)MA English majors got positive CTD in whole.Inquisitiveness,analyticity and open-mindedness got higher scores,while they were negative in truth seeking.And with the grades growth,their CTD would get stronger.(2)Students got a good average score of writing and were good at paragraph structure,sentence-level grammar and organization,but weaker at connective thinking and using quotations.(3)The correlation between MA English majors’ CTD and their academic English writings was significantly positive.Analyticity and truth seeking were two variables that can predict writing performance most.According to the results,the author offered some feasible approaches on MA English majors’ academic writing teaching and CTD cultivation,which may help improve students’ academic writing performances and positive CTD development both in college studies and in the social lives.Overall,this study elaborated the phenomena in terms of MA English majors’ current CTD situation,their academic writing features and the significant positive correlation between them,which contributed to a better comprehension of their relationships.Finally,the author analyzed the limitations of this research and provided some suggestions for future studies,benefiting us to have a more holistic and authentic view on the correlation between MA English majors’ CTD and their academic English writing.