A Study On The Effects Of Continuation Task On Senior High School Students’Critical Thinking In English Writing

Writing,as one of the most basic language skills,plays a paramount part in English learning.It can not only improve learners’ expressive abilities,such as analysis,organization,summary,assessment and effective communication,but also help learners carry on more logical and critical thinking.However,the status quo of English writing in senior high schools needs to be improved.For one thing,writing teaching methods often hinder the advancement of students’ writing skills;for another,the evaluation mechanism of writing frustrates the progress of students’ critical thinking.Thus,considering the very situation of domestic English education and the interactive alignment theory,Wang Chuming put forward a new writing approach,called continuation task,in 2012.This method is easy to operate.Generally,a passage selected from foreign language books is adapted by removing the ending and then learners are asked to read and complete the passage.At present,the empirical research on the continuation task mainly focuses on the language ability of students,and few of them is related to the critical thinking ability.Moreover,in previous studies,the majority of subjects were undergraduate students rather than senior high school students.Given all these into consideration,the purpose of this study is to explore the effects of continuation task on the critical thinking ability of senior high school students in English writing,thus,four specific research questions are put forward:1.What is the status quo of senior high school students’ critical thinking ability in English writing?2.What effects does the continuation task have on senior high school students’critical thinking ability in English writing?3.How does students’ English proficiency affect the effect of continuation task on their critical thinking ability in English writing?4.What are the senior high school students’ attitude and perceptions towards continuation task?The subjects of the study were 85 students from two classes of grade one in No.7 High School of Dongguan.Before the experiment,all students in both classes were asked to complete a writing test,and then students’ critical thinking ability in English writing was rated according to the rating scale of critical thinking ability in English writing.The results of the scale showed that there was no significant difference in students’ critical thinking ability between the two classes.Therefore,the author regards these two classes as experimental class and control class respectively.While the experiment,students in the experimental class practiced continuation tasks,while students in the control class practiced topic writing tasks.At the end of the experiment,the two classes completed another writing test and the same scale was used to rate the students’ critical thinking ability.The whole research lasted for 16 weeks.All of the data from the experiment was analyzed by the social science statistical software SPSS 23.0.The results show that:(1)the overall critical thinking ability of senior high school students in English writing is at the intermediate level on average,among which the evaluation is the weakest and at the lower level,while the other three abilities are at the intermediate level and the analysis is the best;(2)continuation task is conducive to improve senior high school students’ critical thinking ability in English writing,which is embodied in the four aspects of analysis,inference,explanation and evaluation.Students’ critical thinking ability is improved the most in inference and the least in evaluation;(3)there is no apparent correlation between the practical effect of continuation task and students’ English proficiency;(4)most senior high school students hold a positive attitude towards continuation task.The present study is only an attempt of continuation task in English writing teaching in a senior high school.Research results initially prove that continuation task is operable in senior high schools and provide some enlightenment to English writing teaching.In English writing classes of senior high schools,teachers could combine reading and writing closely through continuation task to enhance students’ critical thinking ability in English writing and further improve their writing proficiency.