An Action Research On Developing Junior High School Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Through English Extended Reading

The cultivation of critical thinking skills is one of the most important goals of contemporary talent training and has been an inevitable trend in domestic foreign language teaching and research.In view of the close ties between language and thinking,reading,as an essential kind of language input,is regarded as an excellent approach to develop students’ critical thinking skills.At present,most researchers pay more attention to the cultivation of critical thinking skills in reading classes but neglect the function of extended reading.Extended reading,as the supplement and extension of in-class reading,provides more extensive language input and a broader vision of specific topics,which allows students to consolidate their knowledge and activate their deeper thinking better.Based on the Wen Qiufang’s hierarchical model of critical thinking skills,this study carries out an action research on developing students’ critical thinking skills through English extended reading in a middle school and explores the following two questions: 1.What are the effects of English extended reading on the development of students’ cognitive dispositions of critical thinking skills? 2.What are the effects of English extended reading on the development of students’ affective dispositions of critical thinking skills?The researcher conducted a 12-week action research from September to December of 2019 in a junior high school in Shenyang.The participants of the study were 40 students from Class 7,Grade 8.Questionnaires,interviews,readingcomprehension tests,and critical thinking dispositions inventory were used as instruments.The action research consisted of two rounds,each round lasted for six weeks and followed the steps of identifying questions,making the action plan,implementing the action plan,reflection,and evaluation.The results show that combining developing students’ critical thinking skills with the activities and questions in English extended reading is an effective way to improve students’ critical thinking skills.After the application of extended reading,students’ critical thinking cognitive skills of inference and evaluation have been significantly enhanced.Furthermore,students’ analysis skills also get improved after the implementation of summarizing activity in the second-round action research.Besides,extended reading is also effective in enhancing students’ critical thinking affective dispositions in curiosity,confidence,open-mindedness,perseverance,and integrity.