The Cultivation of Critical Thinking in English Writing Teaching

徐敏

【Abstract】Critical thinking is actually the essential element throughout the whole writing process.With the influence of the traditional teaching methods and learning strategies， students always recite model essays and use templates when writing. after the study of domestic research on critical thinking . the three main reasons for the absence of critical thinking in English writing and practical suggestions aimed to improve the English writing are given.

【Key words】English writing； critical thinking； differences； cultivation strategies.

Introduction

Traditional English teaching in our country always emphasizes students basic language skill training and the ability of memorizing. Whats more， due to the influence of the exam-oriented， students are accustomed to totally accept the knowledge of teachers without judgment and thinking. the third aspect is that people with different cultural background use different discourse（Liangying， 2011： 149）. based on the main reasons for the absence of critical thinking in English writing， this paper will give some methods of the cultivation of critical thinking ability in English writing teaching.

1. The Reasons for the Absence of Critical Thinking in English Writing

1.1 Differences in Cultural and Thinking Patterns

The writing of different cultures will reflect the differences in thinking patterns used by those cultures.Chinese and westerners think in a lot of different ways. Chinese prefer synthetic， subjective and group-oriented thinking modes， while westerners prefer analytic， objective and ego-concentric thinking modes（Wenqiufang， 2015：7）. Because of the indirect， circular and inductive Chinese thought pattern， many Chinese English learners are likely to be weak in General—Specific thought pattern. To some extent， it results in the absence of some of their analytic thinking.

1.2 Differences in Pedagogy

In writing classes， to some extent， teachers tend to pay more attention to the appropriate vocabulary and correct grammar structures， ignoring students logical viewpoints and critical thinking. Whats more， teachers often offer the stereotyped pattern and fixed sentences to them which impose restriction on their thoughts， so these methods cause the poor critical thinking skills and creativity. Most of the English teaching classes are still teacher-centered， in which the students only accept mechanically the pattern and cant think actively. The English writing evaluation criterion also hampers the improvement of the critical thinking skills.

1.3 Differences in Learning Strategies

Many of Chinese English foreign language learners think that the mechanical memory is the only method to learn English. In order to pass examinations， such as CET4， CET6， they merely memorize words， phrases and sentence patterns. Moreover， they pay little attention to the history and the sociology， which leads to their narrow scope of knowledge， the poor thinking and cannot obtain the inspiration from the different subjects of knowledge. So their writing lacks richness of thought， logic and creativity.

2. Strategies of Cultivation Critical Thinking in Writing

the improvement of students critical thinking skills is related closely to teachers instruction， So it is necessary to reform the foreign language teaching and transform the teacher-centered tradition into student-centered tradition， which can make students take part in class activities actively to improve students cognitive skills and the critical thinking skills. The students should learn languages， literature， and plentiful extracurricular material to broaden their horizon . In the process of studying， the students can gradually learn the ability of classification， reasoning. In this way， we can gradually improve the reasoning and evaluation skills of the critical thinking ability.

3. Conclusion

From the above analyses， For the cultivation of critical thinking ability， teachers should combine the theories of scholars with related strategies and measures in the practical writing teaching to improve students ability. Students should understand the levels of the critical thinking， and then consciously obtain related knowledge through various methods to open their mind .Finally， the students can write the articles with rich， meaningful content and logic clear thinking， thus improving the output levels of language skills.

References：

[1]董毓.批判性思維原理和方法[M]北京：高等教育出版社， 2010.

[2]梁颖.批判性思维与英语写作教[J].南昌教育学院学报外语研，2011，26（1）：149-153.

[3]文秋芳.评述高校外语教学中思辨力培养存在的问题[J].外语教学理论与实践，2015，3：6-12.