An Empirical Study Of Cultivating Critical Thinking Competence In English Reading Teaching Based On The Delphi Model

The cultivation of critical thinking competence is the requirement of core quality development of senior high school students in our country.However,the critical thinking competence of senior high school students in China is not high enough.Moreover,the domestic English reading instruction is also in shortage of the systematic development of students' critical thinking competence,which fails to meet the requirements of critical thinking competence in the English reading part in the new curriculum of College Entrance Examination.Therefore,based on using the theory of "Delphi" Model,this dissertation is aiming to study the following two questions:(1)What is the level of senior high school students' critical thinking dispositions in English reading?(2)What are the effects of the Delphi Model employed in English reading teaching on the cultivation of senior high students' critical thinking competence?In this study,two intact classes of senior one in the International Department of a senior high school in Changsha were taken as the research subjects.Firstly,students' critical thinking dispositions were pre-tested and English reading teachers were interviewed for better understanding on the level of senior high school students' critical thinking dispositions in English reading.Then,according to the theory of the "Delphi" Model,classroom teaching design was carried out and the experimental class was trained in critical thinking competence of reading teaching for four months,while other teaching contents and methods were kept consistent in both the experimental class and the control class.The control class did not undergo any experimental intervention,and still used the previous teaching methods and the original teaching plan.At the end of the semester,through the CTDI-CV test again,statistical software SPSS 24.0 was used to analyze the changes of students' critical thinking tendencies in the experimental class and the control class.The research comes up with the following findings: overall speaking,the level of affective dispositions of high school students in English reading is not high.The students normally lack of or only have the basic level of critical thinking abilities.And according to the experiment result,the author analyzes that through the training of critical thinking skills in English reading teaching,all dimensions of students' critical thinking affective dispositions would be effectively improved.This was particularly the case in the intensified training parts: "interpretation" and "analysis" skills and the corresponding "analyticity”,“systematicity" and overall "inquisitiveness" critical thinking affective dispositions.This dissertation further studied and summarized the methods and approaches of cultivating high school students' critical thinking competence,with not only specialty but also universal value,which is able to provide reference for the cultivation of high school students' critical thinking competence in China.These methods include: using of visual organization charts,organizing class brainstorming activities,organizing positive & negative critical debates,and training on how to distinguish facts and opinions.The available approaches include: Creating a sound environment for cultivating critical thinking competence;critical thinking competence cultivating be added to textbooks' content;helping students become active constructors of knowledge;and practice the methods of cultivating critical thinking competence in English reading teaching.This dissertation is composed of six chapters,offering a relatively exhaustive and deep exploration into the cultivation of critical thinking competence in English reading teaching based on the theory of "Delphi" Model,aiming to providing reference for the cultivation of high school students' critical thinking competence in China.