从中美主要外语水平测试中的写作测试设置透析思辨能力培养

An Analysis of the Cultivation of Critical Thinking Skills by Comparing the Writing Tests of Major Language Tests in China and America

近年来,英语专业学生思辨缺席现象引起了学界的广泛关注。许多学者认为,学生思辨能力的培养需要融入教学与测试中,因此该文从中美外语水平测试中的作文题出发,利用质化研究方法对比分析中美写作能力测试对思辨能力的不同要求。结果发现我国的外语水平测试重语言轻思辨,而美国的外语水平测试如托福等则强调语言与思辨相结合。这一研究为培养外语学习者的思辨能力提供了重要启示——外语测试应该在考查学生语言水平的同时,考查学生的思辨能力,使语言水平测试发挥其对培养和提升学生的思辨能力教学的积极作用。

In recent years, the phenomenon that English major students lack critical thinking skills has been in the focus of schol-ars. The cultivation of critical thinking skills should be reflected in the language tests, so this paper employs qualitative method to analyze requirements for critical thinking skills in major American and Chinese language tests and finds that the language tests in China pay more attention to language use but less attention to critical thinking skills, but American language tests com-bine both. This research provides great implications for us that language tests should test students’language use as well as criti-cal thinking skills so as to exert positive washback effect on cultivating and improving students’critical thinking skills.