A Comparative Study Of Sixth Graders’ Critical Thinking Abilities In Second Language Classes At Smithton Middle School And Baoshan Experimental School Based On The Theoretical Model Of Critical Thinking

Language learning is not only an important way to master language knowledge,but also an important channel for human beings to understand the world and obtain information,as well as an important way to cultivate critical thinking.China has clearly required that the curriculum objectives are not too focused on knowledge transfer,but rather on the three-dimensional goals of knowledge and skills,process and methods,and emotions,attitudes,and values in the new round of curriculum reform in basic education.However,under the current education model,most English language classes in China’s basic education still mainly focus on basic knowledge such as vocabulary and grammar,neglecting the cultural background and cross-cultural communication skills.Therefore,it is of great importance to study how to design a reasonable and targeted English language classroom to make students switch from being passive recipients of language learners to active thinkers and to study and develop their critical thinking awareness and skills.The research in the U.S.section of this study is based on the author’s survey during her teaching in the Confucius Institute Volunteer Chinese Teacher Program in the United States.The research in China was conducted by the author with the help of her classmate at Baoshan Experimental School affiliated with Shanghai Xingzhi Middle School.The research focuses on the following three questions: 1.Based on Professor Wen Qiufang’s theoretical model of critical thinking,what is the current state of critical thinking ability of sixth graders in the two schools? 2.What causes the difference in the critical thinking ability of students in the two schools? 3.What improvements can we make to shorten this difference?Through the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods,the author uses questionnaires,interviews,and classroom observations to survey a total of155 sixth-grade students in two middle schools,so as to understand the current status of critical thinking skills of sixth-grade students in these two middle schools,to compare the differences in critical thinking ability of students of the same age in different countries,and to analyze the causes and countermeasures.From the analysis and discussion of the results,the author had the following major findings:1.Overall,the critical thinking of the sixth graders in both schools was at a moderate to low level,with differences between the school’s genders.2.There are three main reasons for this discrepancy,from the perspectives of students,teachers,and school and community.3.Heuristic teaching method,group cooperative activities,and appropriate reading materials are effective in raising the interest of sixth-grade students in learning a foreign language and thus improving their critical thinking abilities.Through the combination of theory and practice,drawing on the critical thinking ability teaching methods learned from Smithton Middle School classrooms,this study hopes to find an effective critical thinking teaching method for Chinese middle school English classes and Chinese middle school students.