A Case Study Of The Relationship Between Language Learning Strategies And Critical Thinking Ability

With the development of economic globalization,language plays an important role in international communication.Critical thinking ability can be traced back to Dewey’s statement that education should teach us how to think.In China,since Huang Yuanshen proposed that English majors lacked critical thinking ability in 1998,a large number of discussions and researches on critical thinking ability started,mainly focusing on the construction of critical thinking skills theoretical framework,critical thinking ability measurement tools,and the role of curriculum settings in the、development of critical thinking ability.Most of the previous studies were one-fold aspect of critical thinking ability or language skills,and most of the research methods were measurement tools of critical thinking ability and questionnaire.Based on Facione’s model of critical thinking ability and Oxford’s classification of language learning strategies,this research uses questionnaire,semi-structured interview,and classroom observations as research tools.By selecting five freshmen who take part in English debate class from Beihang university in Beijing,this thesis aims to find out the relationship between intermediate language learners’ critical thinking ability and language learning strategies.The research questions are as follows:1.What language learning strategies are mainly used by the intermediate language learners?2.What is the possible relationship between the language learning strategies used and intermediate language learners’ critical thinking abilities?The findings are as follows:First,these learners use cognitive strategies,meta-cognitive strategies in a high frequency,but they never use affective strategies.Among the six strategies,cognitive strategies,metacognitive strategies are the most helpful for language learners to improve their thinking skills,such as the abilities of inference,analysis,self-monitoring,evaluation abilities,and summarizing logical conclusions.Second,language learning strategies and critical thinking ability are two aspects that cannot be ignored and there is a positive relationship between them.On the one hand,the improvement of thinking ability is beneficial to the strengthening of learning strategies such as self-correction,self-monitoring and self-reflection in the process of language learning.On the other hand,in the process of language input or output,learners’ abilities of analysis,reasoning,induction,demonstration,innovation and other critical thinking abilities are used.Besides,this thesis also finds that there is an unbalanced development between the participants’ language skills and critical thinking ability.There are several implications:Students should cultivate their critical thinking ability consciously in the process of language learning with the help of language learning strategies.Besides,classroom discussion and debate are also helpful to develop learner’s critical thinking abilities and language learning.