An Action Research On Cultivating Students’ Critical Thinking Ability In Junior English Reading Teaching

Reading is an important medium and means for human beings to obtain information,construct meaning and understand the world.English reading occupies an important position in English courses,and it is the leading course for cultivating students’ comprehensive language ability.In traditional English reading classes,teachers take the development of students’ reading skills as the teaching goal,confined to the understanding of the surface meaning of the text,and neglect to cultivate students’ ability to think,judge and reason in-depth on the text.With the development of the core literacy of Chinese students,cultivating students’ critical thinking ability has become an important teaching goal of Chinese English reading teaching.Based on the “Delphi”Model and Constructivist Theory,this research carried out a 12-week English reading teaching action research in Class A of S Middle School in Changchun,aiming to cultivate students’ critical thinking ability through setting questions,implementing reading activity and using reading teaching strategies.This research aims to explore the following research questions:(1)How do teachers cultivate students’ critical thinking ability through English reading classes?(2)How are the students’ cognitive skills of critical thinking after the action research?(3)How are the students’ emotional tendency of critical thinking after the action research?The author follows the process of “plan-action-observation-reflection”,starting from the six cognitive skills of critical thinking(interpretation,analysis,reasoning,explanation,evaluation,and self-regulation),setting questions to cultivate students’ critical thinking ability,implemented reading teaching activities(debates,group discussions,brainstorming,etc.),and used reading teaching strategies(through text titles,picture predictions,hypothetical scenarios,etc.),and carried out two rounds of teaching action research.The research results show that:(1)In junior English reading teaching,students’ critical thinking ability can be improved through the setting of reading questions,the implementation of reading teaching activities and the application of reading teaching strategies.(2)The students’ cognitive skills of critical thinking have improved after the action research.Boys have improved significantly in interpretation,reasoning,and explanation abilities,while girls have improved significantly in interpretation,analysis,and reasoning abilities.(3)The students’ emotional tendency of critical thinking have improved.Boys have improved significantly in analytical ability,self-confidence,and cognitive maturity,while girls have improved significantly in finding truth,open-mindedness,systematic ability,self-confidence,curiosity,and cognitive maturity.