A Study On The Impact Of CBI On The Development Of Academic English Proficiency And Critical Thinking Ability

Content-based instruction(CBI)is a kind of language teaching model which is based on subject content.It combines language teaching with content teaching,using target language as the vehicle of teaching disciplinary knowledge,helping students improve language proficiency while learning subject content.With the development of economic globalization,education is facing the challenge of internationalization.The cultivation of college students’ academic English proficiency and critical thinking ability is increasingly valued.However,due to the long-term influence of China’s traditional teacher-centered teaching mode,the cultivation of college students’ academic English proficiency and critical thinking ability is still limited.There have been many studies at home and abroad indicating that CBI plays a positive role in many aspects,such as the development of academic competence,language proficiency and critical thinking ability.The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of CBI on the development of college students’ academic English proficiency and their critical thinking ability,as well as the correlation between academic English proficiency and critical thinking ability,probing into the teaching mode combining the three factors.This study took 335 non-English major sophomores from a key university in China as subjects,dividing them into the experiment group and the control group,which were given one semester’s^academic English course respectively with CBI and regular College English teaching method.The changes of students’ academic English proficiency and their critical thinking ability in the two groups have been explored by the quantitative instruments:Academic English Proficiency Test and CTDI—CV(Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version).The results of the tests and questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 16.0(Statistical Package for Social Sciences).The qualitative instrument,naming the interview,was used to analyze the learning process and feelings of students from the two groups.Three questions are expected to be explored in this study:(1)What is the impact of CBI on the development of students’ academic English proficiency in academic English teaching context?(2)What is the impact of CBI on the cultivation of students5 critical thinking ability in academic English teaching context?(3)What is the correlation between students’academic English proficiency and their critical thinking ability in academic English teaching context?Through the analysis of data,the major findings are presented as follows:(1)The academic English proficiency of two groups had both been improved and the experiment group had improved more than the control group.The difference reached the significant point.Although no significant difference was found between groups in terms of academic English speaking,the experiment group was significantly better than the control group in aspects of academic English listening,reading and writing.In the pre-test,the academic English speaking proficiency of the experiment group was a bit lower than that of the control group,but surpassed the control group in the post-test,which indicates that CBI has an increasing positive impact on the development of students’academic English speaking proficiency as time goes on.(2)Critical thinking ability of two groups had both been improved,but the experiment group increased faster than the control group.In terms of critical thinking disposition and critical thinking skills,both significant differences were found between the experiment group and the control group.As for the 7 dispositions,open-mindedness and maturity didn’t show significant difference while other five dispositions all showed significant difference which is in favor of the experiment group.Though there was no significant difference in interpretation,analysis and self-regulation,significant differences were found in evaluation,inference and explanation.In addition,as for most of the dispositions and skills,the increase range of the experiment group was larger than that of the control group.All the statistics show that CBI plays a positive role in the cultivation of students’critical thinking ability.(3)There were significant positive correlations between students’ academic English proficiency and their critical thinking ability before and after the experiment,which indicates that academic English proficiency and critical thinking ability connect with each other and promote mutually in academic English teaching context.In conclusion,CBI plays a positive role in the development of students5 academic English proficiency and their critical thinking ability.Meanwhile,academic English proficiency and critical thinking ability promote mutually in academic English teaching context.On the basis of the research findings,the study puts forward some pedagogical implications on the design and arrangement of CBI and academic English course,as well as the cultivation of students’critical thinking ability,aiming to help promote college students’ academic English proficiency and their critical thinking ability.However,it should be pointed out that there are still some limitations for this study and it requires further in-depth explorations.