An Action Research On The Cultivation Of Senior High Students’ Higher-Order Thinking Competence Based On Thematic Meaning Of English Reading

As the key stage of students’ learning English and improving English learning ability,Senior high period plays a vital role in helping students lay the foundation for lifelong English learning,develop a broad international perspective,and improve their intercultural communication competence.Among the five major language learning activities,namely listening,speaking,reading,viewing,and writing,reading is the main channel of language input in high school English classroom teaching,and it is also one of the most important lesson types.However,due to the long-existing influence of traditional teaching approaches and evaluation methods,there are some problems in senior high reading lessons,such as the insufficient exploration of thematic meaning as well as the failure to better develop students’ higher-order thinking competence.The High School English Curriculum Standards(2017)points out that students’ exploration of thematic meaning should be the most important task of students’ language learning,which directly affects students’ discourse comprehension,the level of thinking competence development,and the effectiveness of language learning.Based on the current reading teaching situation and the requirements of the High School English Curriculum Standards,the thesis takes the thematic meaning exploration and the cultivation of higher-order thinking competence as the research direction.An action research has been carried out at Chengcheng Middle School in Taiyuan,Shanxi Province.The research aims to answer the following two research questions:(1)Does the high school English reading teaching based on thematic meaning exploration play a significant role in promoting the development of students’ higher-order thinking competence?(2)What activities should be designed in a reading lesson that aims to develop students’ higher-order thinking competence based on thematic meaning exploration? What is the relationship between thematic meaning exploration and these activities?After 16 weeks of action research,with the help of research tools such as questionnaires,teacher and student interviews as well as thinking competence reading tests,three research findings have been summarized:(1)High school English reading teaching based on thematic meaning exploration plays a significant role in cultivating students’ higher-order thinking competence;(2)Reading activities,which develop students’ higher-order thinking competence based on thematic meaning exploration,can be designed from three aspects——logical thinking,critical thinking,and innovative thinking;(3)Senior high school English reading lessons should be designed under the direction of thematic meaning exploration,and activities aimed at developing students’ higher-order thinking competence should serve as the breakthrough point.Moreover,the problems students may encounter when doing activities requiring higher-order thinking and the corresponding solutions are also put forward.Finally,in order to improve reading teaching quality,the following four pieces of teaching enlightenment have been put forward:(1)Teachers should make it clear that thematic meaning exploration is the main line of English reading teaching,and realize the importance of cultivating higher-order thinking competence;(2)Teachers should integrate and utilize various teaching resources to improve the effectiveness of discourse analysis;(3)Teachers should actively create teaching situations and explore the educational value of English subject;(4)Teachers should have a lifelong enthusiasm for learning and continuously improve their professional qualities.