A Study On The Effect Of The Continuation Task On Senior High School Students’ Critical Thinking In English Writing And Writing Performance

Writing is a construction process involving cognition and thinking,which is accompanied by the use of analytical,reasoning,evaluation,interpretation,explanation and other critical thinking skills.The National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017 Edition,2020 Revision)put forward higher requirements on the English writing ability of senior high school students: students can choose appropriate vocabulary,grammatical structure and cohesive device in their English writing to improve the coherence of language expression and make context more cohesive.However,the writing level of senior high school students is not optimistic,such as weak writing interest and critical thinking,poor writing habits.Therefore,it is very important to explore feasible teaching mode to improve senior high school students’ critical thinking in English writing and writing performance.In2012,Professor Wang Chuming proposed continuation task based on synergy theory,which can effectively promote language acquisition.It is of great significance to stimulate learners’ drive to express,enhance their self-confidence and improve their writing performance.The literature shows that the domestic and foreign researches on the role of continuation task in promoting language acquisition seldom focus on its effect on learners’ critical thinking.Therefore,this study attempts to apply continuation task to English writing teaching in senior high school,aiming at improving senior high school students’ critical thinking in English writing and writing performance.A quasi-experimental research was carried out in this study for three months in a senior high school in Zhangzhou City.106 students from two classes of Grade One were selected as experiment participants.Class 8 was chosen as the experimental class and continuation task was applied to English writing teaching,while Class 10 as control class and traditional teaching method was applied in this class.This study attempted to verify the following two hypotheses: 1.Continuation task can better improve senior high school students’ critical thinking in English writing than traditional teaching method.2.Continuation task can better improve senior high school students’ English writing performance than traditional teaching method.At the end of the experiment,9 students in the experimental class were chosen for an interview,which aimed to confirm the data of the study.The results show that: 1.The continuation task can better improve senior high school students’ critical thinking in English writing better than traditional teaching method.After the experiment,the mean value of critical thinking in English writing in the experimental class(m=2.960)is higher than that of students in the control class(m=2.740),and there is a significant difference between the two classes in the mean value of critical thinking in English writing(p<0.05).To be specific,the mean value of analytical skill,reasoning skill,argumentation skill,evaluation skill and monitoring skill in the experimental class is respectively higher than that of students in the control class(m=2.637>2.236、m=3.061>3.000、m=2.675>2.217、m=3.019>3.005、m=3.859>3.746).There are no significant differences between the two classes in the reasoning skill,evaluation skill and monitoring skill(p>0.05),but there is a significant difference between the two classes in the analytical skill and argumentation skill(p<0.05).2.The continuation task can better improve senior high school students’ English writing performance than traditional teaching method.After the experiment,the average score of English writing in the experimental class(m=11.679)is higher than that of students in the control class(m=10.585),and there is a significant difference between the two classes(p=0.000<0.05)in the score of English writing.Finally,according to the research results and the actual situation encountered in the experiment,the author suggests that teachers should frequently apply the continuation task and peer evaluation to English writing,and establish effective scaffold so as to help students improve their critical thinking in English writing and writing performance.