A Study On The Role Of Critical Thinking Disposition And Reading Comprehension Ability In Senior High School Students’ English Continuation Writing Scores

Based on the humanistic learning theory and interactive alignment theory,this research will explore the role of senior high school students’ critical thinking disposition and English reading comprehension ability in their continuation writing scores.The investigation of this study involves 150 Grade 3 students in a senior high school in Fuzhou with the critical thinking disposition questionnaire of high school students,English reading comprehension scores and continuation writing test.This study mainly analyzes the following two questions:（1）What is the status quo of critical thinking disposition,English reading comprehension ability and continuation writing scores of senior high school students examined? Is there any correlation among the three factors?（2）Can the critical thinking disposition and English reading comprehension ability respectively affect the examinees’ performance in continuation writing? Do these two factors have a interaction effect on the performance of continuation writing?Based on these research questions,descriptive statistic analysis is made on the students’ critical thinking disposition,reading comprehension scores,and continuation writing scores.Co-relationship and the two-way ANOVA analysis are applied to test the co-relationships among three factors,and the interaction effects of the former two factors on the score of continuation writing.The results indicate that:（1）The overall level of critical thinking disposition of senior high school students examined proves inactive（M=3.93<4）;with 46% of the students’ reading scores fall short of the average（28.5）;while 67.33% of the students’ continuous writing scores fail to reach the fourth grade;thus it reveals that the majority of students investigated have a poor performance in their critical thinking disposition,reading comprehension ability and the continuation writing task.In addition,the students’ critical thinking disposition（r=0.452**）and reading comprehension ability（r=0.641**）are positively correlated with their continuation writing scores.（2）The critical thinking disposition（F=5.645,Sig.=0.004）and English reading comprehension ability（F=5.005,Sig.=0.008）of senior high school students respectively have main effects on their performance of continuation writing scores,the 2-way ANOVA test reach a significant level with continuation writing scores as the dependent,and interaction effect between the former two factors is significant（F=5.597,Sig.=0.019）.Proceeding from these results,the author puts forward the following suggestions for teachers so as to effectively improve critical thinking disposition,reading comprehension ability and continuation writing ability.（1）In the aspect of critical thinking,teachers shall advocate liberal and democratic classes for students,giving up their authority,and students are encouraged to question in the form of dialogue,so that their critical thinking ability in solving problems can be cultivated.（2）In the aspect of reading comprehension ability,teachers shall select reading texts that are closer to the students’ real life,so that they can apply their common sense to analyze the texts.And then teachers can help students to expand their writing ideas in order to achieve the instruction aim of promoting writing by reading.（3）In the aspect of continuation writing task,teachers can help students to align the text with the writing content on the basis of a sound comprehension of the given text,so that students can use their thinking skills in the writing process to creatively organize the writing content.Thereafter,students’ self-assessment,peer assessment and teacher assessment can be combined to improve the drafts of students writing.