The Interrelationship Of Perceptions Of English Classroom Environment,Critical Thinking Disposition And English Achievement Of Senior High School Students

Classroom environment and critical thinking are two essential factors for students’ development.However,considerable theoretical research at home and abroad mainly focuses on singular factors,and empirical studies on their correlation are rare.Empirical research on the interrelationship of classroom environment,critical thinking and English achievement remains scarce in second language acquisition.Therefore,it is a new subject worthwhile to research.The present study investigated 184 second-year students of senior high school through two questionnaires and a semi-structured interview to explore the interrelationship of students’ perceptions of English classroom environment,critical thinking disposition and English achievement.Based on the obtained results of descriptive statistical analysis,independent sample t-test,Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis,the research findings are summarized as follows.The overall perceptions of English classroom environment of senior high school students reach a favorably high level,and for the perception of each subscale,they are ranked from high to low as follows: teacher support,class order,task orientation,student cohesiveness,and cooperation.Senior high school students generally have a positive disposition towards critical thinking.Positive disposition also can be found in the seven subscales with the ranking as follows: inquisitiveness,analyticity,maturity,self-confidence,open-mindedness,systematicity and truth-seeking.No significant gender differences in students’ perceptions and critical thinking disposition are found.Statistical subject differences in students’ perceptions and critical thinking disposition are discovered.Science students behave better in these two variables.As far as subscales of classroom environment are concerned,there exist subject differences in teacher support,task orientation,and class order.Regarding sub-dimensions of critical thinking disposition,subject differences can be detected in analyticity,systematicity,self-confidence and maturity.Significant differences in the perceptions and critical thinking disposition of students in key and parallel classes also emerge and students from key classes behave better.The existence of differences can be uncovered in task orientation,student cohesiveness,cooperation and class order.Regarding sub-dimensions of critical thinking disposition,differences emerge in open-mindedness,analyticity,inquisitiveness and maturity.Moderate positive correlations have been shown among students’ overall perceptions of English classroom environment,CTD and English achievement.For the predicative power of English classroom environment to students’ critical thinking disposition,the subscales of cooperation,class order,and task orientation can make positive contributions.For its predicative power to students’ English achievement,the subscales of class order and task orientation can positively promote students’ progress,while teacher support has a negative effect.In addition,maturity and self-confidence can positively predict students’ English achievement.Based on the above results of this study,the author also proposes several pedagogical implications for English teaching in senior high school: creating a kind of classroom environment with thinking;apply the method of flipped classroom or cooperative learning or problem-based learning;dig into the hidden contents that can improve students’ critical thinking in the textbooks or extracurricular reading texts.