Correlation Between English Writing Self-efficacy And Critical Thinking In Argumentative Writing For Senior Two Students

A large quantity of domestic and foreign researches have indicated that English writing self-efficacy and critical thinking are two crucial factors influencing writing achievements.Studies on them are becoming increasingly exhaustive and comprehensive by domestic scholars.However,most researches focus on college students or English majors.Related researches sampled by senior high school students are small in amount.Besides,rare studies have probed into the correlation between English writing selfefficacy and critical thinking showing in argumentative writing.Therefore,to enrich the present researches as well as provide new ideas for promoting English writing teaching in senior high schools,this paper aims to solve the following four questions:1.What are the characteristics of English writing self-efficacy for senior two students?2.What is the general tendency of critical thinking in English argumentative writing for senior two students?3.What is the correlation between English writing self-efficacy and critical thinking showing in argumentative writing?4.How are the dimensions of writing self-efficacy and elements of critical thinking in argumentative writing correlated?To solve the above questions,this paper adopts research instruments,including writing self-efficacy questionnaire,critical thinking questionnaire,an English argumentative writing test and interviews,to investigate 195 senior two students from Pengzhou No.1 Senior High School.After all the data have been collected,the author input them into SPSS 25.0 and get them analyzed.And the major findings are summarized as follows:Firstly,English writing self-efficacy for senior two students belong to a moderate level.Specifically speaking,they have moderate writing task self-efficacy and moderate writing skill self-efficacy.And senior two students comparatively possess higher writing task self-efficacy than writing skill self-efficacy.Besides,their writing self-efficacy is unstable and imbalanced.The degree of endeavor is viewed as the biggest influencing factor of writing self-efficacy.In addition,both teachers and students know little about English writing self-efficacy.Secondly,senior two students are critical at a moderate level indicated by the result of critical thinking questionnaire.Judging from critical thinking model,most students can present two to three arguments supported by relevant evidence in their compositions.Only a few have realized and refuted the alternative views.And fallacies detected in their writing are small in amount.In addition,although both teachers and students think highly of critical thinking,teachers do not actually take practical and effective ways to train it.Thirdly,senior two students’ English writing self-efficacy is significantly positively correlated with critical thinking in argumentative writing rated by Stapleton’s critical thinking model at a moderate level(r=.585).However,no significant correlation is detected between English writing self-efficacy and critical thinking assessed by Stapleton’s critical thinking questionnaire.Fourthly,there exists significant positive correlation between certain dimensions of English writing self-efficacy and some elements of critical thinking in argumentative writing for senior two students.To be specific,arguments,pieces of evidence and recognition of opposition are respectively correlated with writing task self-efficacy and writing skill self-efficacy at a significant positive level.Besides,the element of refutation is also in significant positive correlation with writing skill self-efficacy,but there is no obvious association between refutation and writing task self-efficacy.Moreover,fallacies are neither significantly correlated with writing task self-efficacy nor with writing skill self-efficacy.At last,based on the research findings,the author offers some feasible advice for English writing teaching.From the perspective of enhancing English writing self-efficacy,teachers are supposed to increase students’ successful writing experiences,trigger their inner motive to learn English writing,set up groups of peer tutoring and give more positive feedback.As to the cultivation of critical thinking in argumentative writing,it is suggested that teachers should render students more opportunities to express their opinions.At the same time,optimize the current evaluation system for argumentation by combining the traditional one with critical-thinking-oriented evaluation system.