Research On The Cultivation Of Critical Thinking Based On Mind Map In English Reading In Junior High Schools

English reading is an essential component of English teaching in middle school.New requirements have been put forward in The English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education for students’ English reading ability.Teachers should affix much value to the cultivation of students’ reading ability when teaching.Nevertheless,influenced by the traditional education model,teachers fail to improve their comprehensive ability when teaching,but pay too much attention to the explanation of language knowledge,and ignore the improvement of students’ reading ability.Therefore,the traditional teaching model in which teachers focus on teaching language points needs to be reformed and innovated.As an effective way of thinking,Mind Map uses the teaching principle of knowledge visualization,with pictures and texts vividly demonstrating language points.Through the application of Mind Map in junior high school English reading teaching,this paper mainly explores its influence on students’ critical thinking in English reading,taking systematic ability and analytical ability as examples.Based on the theory of constructivism and visualization theory,this study takes 90 students from two classes of the 9th grade of Dalu Junior High School in Lingbi County,Suzhou city as the research objects,which lasted for four months.The study centered on two questions:1.What is the impact of Mind Map on students’ critical thinking ability in reading?2.What is the impact of Mind Map on students’ reading scores?To learn about the status quo of students’ reading and critical thinking,an English reading test and a questionnaire were given to students.The questionnaire was divided into two parts:systematic ability and analytical ability.Besides,the interview method was also used to interview teachers aimed at reflecting on own teaching through the teaching design of other teachers and make sufficient preparation for the experiment.During the experiment,the traditional reading teaching mode was still adopted in the control class,while the teaching strategy of Mind Map was adopted in the experimental class.The teaching method of Mind Map was continuously improved during the teaching process to obtain better experimental results.The purpose of the interview was to reflect on whether the teacher designed activities based on Mind Map to cultivate students’ critical thinking in the process of reading teaching.After the experiment,in order to identify the changes in students’ reading scores and critical thinking,the students in the experimental class and control class were asked to conduct a post-test and a questionnaire.The relevant data collected during the experiment were summarized,compared and analyzed,and the experimental conclusions were drawn.The study found that through the application of Mind Map in English reading teaching in junior high school,students’ reading scores and critical thinking have been improved.Through a semester of Mind Map teaching experiment,the paper also provides several suggestions for junior high school reading teaching:First,teachers should update their teaching concepts,from teaching students grammar knowledge to teaching students English reading methods with emphasis on cultivating students’ reading skills so that students can read articles deeply and their critical thinking can be improved.Second,teachers should be students-oriented,enhancing and giving full play to their self-learning ability.Third,teachers should renew classroom teaching setting and hone the teaching skill of Mind Map to create a favorable classroom atmosphere,thus promoting students’ reading interests and increasing their reading scores.