A Comparative Study Of Thinking Capacity Cultivation In Senior High School English Textbooks Under The Background Of New Curriculum Standards

English Curriculum Standards for Ordinary Senior High Schools(2017 Edition,2020 Revised)proposes that English courses should develop students’ core competencies in English subjects such as language ability,cultural awareness,thinking capacity and learning ability.Among them,thinking capacity refers to the ability and level of thinking in logic,criticism and innovation,which reflects the mental characteristics of the core competencies of English subjects.As the main support of teachers’ teaching and students’ learning,English textbooks play an important role in cultivating students’ core competencies.Learning activities in textbooks are an important way for learners to learn and try to use language to express themselves.The domestic research on the cultivation and training of thinking capacity mostly focuses on the reading section in the textbook and the learning activities in the textbook.And it mainly focuses on the study of one version of English textbook.Therefore,this study uses the text analysis method to study the training of thinking capacity of learning activities in four new versions of English textbooks,which will help teachers to make up for their weakness and better design teaching,so as to cultivate students’ thinking capacity.Based on the Revised Bloom’s Educational Goal Classification Theory,this study takes four new versions of compulsory one textbooks :People’s Education Edition(PEP,hereinafter),Beijing Normal University Press(BNUP,hereinafter),New Standard English Edition(NSE,hereinafter)and Yi Lin Edition as the research object,combining with English curriculum standards,and analyzes the learning activities in the textbooks from the perspective of thinking capacity,which is one of the four goals of English core competencies.Through text analysis,it discusses the following three questions:(1)What is the status quo of the cultivation of thinking capacity in the four editions of senior high school English textbooks?(2)How does the thinking capacity level embodied in the learning activities in the four editions of textbooks represent the basic ideas and requirements of the curriculum standards?(3)What are the similarities and differences between the learning activities in the four editions of English textbooks and the cultivation of thinking capacity?And why?Through analysis,this study draws the following conclusions:(1)Among the four versions of English textbooks,the learning activities of the textbooks published by PEP,NSE,BNUP and Yi Lin have a comprehensive effect on the cultivation of thinking capacity,including the training of lower-order thinking and the participation of higher-order thinking capacity.Among them,the training of lower-order thinking training mainly focuses on mechanical practice of language knowledge and detailed understanding and positioning activities,while the training of thinking capacity of higher-order thinking includes the cultivation of logical,critical and innovative thinking.(2)The content of thinking capacity training in the learning activities of the four versions of the textbooks well reflects the basic ideas and requirements of the curriculum standards at the higher-order thinking,and the training and cultivation of the higher-order thinking capacity of the four versions of the textbooks mainly focuses on the Level One of the core competencies,which is in line with the level standard that the curriculum standards should reach for the required textbooks.However,the number of three kinds of thinking capacity activities distribution is not balanced,mainly based on logicality,followed by criticality and the least innovativeness,which don’t fully meet the requirements of the curriculum standards.(3)There are many similarities in the contents and forms of learning activities in the training of low-order and high-order thinking capacity among the four versions of textbooks,but they have their own characteristics in the specific teaching arrangements of activities.This is because the four versions of textbooks are compiled under the guidance of the concept of curriculum standards and students’ cognitive law,so there are many similarities in the content and form of activities.However,due to the different teaching concepts of textbook writers,there are many differences in the training and cultivation of thinking capacity in the arrangement of learning activities of language skills and language knowledge.Based on the research results,this study puts forward some teaching suggestions on how to improve the teaching textbooks and how to cultivate the thinking capacity of senior high school students.From the perspective of textbook arrangement,it is necessary to strengthen the cultivation of students’ critical thinking,increase inquiry,evaluation tasks and open-ended questions,and cultivate students’ innovative spirit.For teachers,teachers should establish a correct educational concept and pay attention to the cultivation of students’ core core competencies-thinking capacity.Teachers should remember that the cultivation of students’ thinking capacity is difficult and long,and it needs a lot of efforts.