Cultivation of College Students＇ Critical Thinking Ability Through the Reading-Discussion-Writing Approach

Critical thinking ability is the core skill of higher education. How to train the non-English major students＇ critical thinking ability in the English writing instruction plays an important role in the compound personnel training. In this paper, the reading-discussion-writing approach which guarantees the innovative construction of writing is proposed to train college students＇ critical thinking ability, and specific suggestions on the practice are articulated such as designing diversified listening and speaking lead-in activities to activate or supplement the relative notion and background knowledge, using variety of challenging reading-discussion-writing tasks, and conducting mutual evaluation, etc., to let students deeply understand the text through discussion and promote their language competence and writing ability as well as their reflective thinking ability.

Cultivate Critical Thinking Ability via Students’ Presentations in College English Classes

In the new era when demands for flexible intellectual skills are increasing,strengthening the cultivation of critical thinking ability of students has become one of the key purposes of higher education.This paper intends to discuss how to cultivate students’critical thinking ability through English classroom presentations.It points out that during the whole process,teachers’guidance plays an indispensable role.Only when both teachers and students are aware that classroom presentations are a golden opportunity for the cultivation of students’critical thinking ability and carry this awareness into their English classes,can English presentations be brought into full play.

The Application of Pragmatic Presupposition in Developing Critical Thinking of Writing

This study aims to explore whether developing critical thinking ability from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition can help non-English majors improve their writing achievements.This empirical study employs tests as the instruments.126 non-English majors from a key university of Shandong Province participate in the study.The results of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test indicate that most subjects(95%)have inadequate or limited critical thinking ability,which leads to digression,repetitive and lengthy description,and unconvincing arguments,as well as illogical or incoherent structures in writing.After a ten-week teaching instruction from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition,students in experimental group improve their writing achievements,indicating that the instruction of critical thinking ability from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition may have certain effects on their writing performance.The study will promote the application of pragmatic presupposition to writing teaching and offer some implications for the teaching of English writing.

Analysis on Construction of the Cultivation Mode of Thinking Ability in College English Teaching

With the increasing competition of international talents, cultivating college students’ ability of thinking has become the core content of college English teaching, and it has a very important role for students to work and develop in the future. At present, however, there are still many problems in the practice teaching process of college English teaching and learning ability training mode in China. Therefore, this article starts from the basic concept of thinking ability, and analyzes the importance of thinking ability in the college English teaching. Combining the current situation of college English teaching on the students’ thinking ability, further explore how to effectively construct the training mode of English teaching ability, in order to improve the efficiency of college English classroom teaching.

Effects of Formal Instruction on the Development of Learners’ Critical Thinking Ability

Over the past decades, increasingly more critical thinking （CT） in Western countries. attention has been paid to cultivating learners＇ Chinese educators and teachers have also realized the necessity of developing Chinese students＇ ability for critical thinking and advocated pedagogical reform. However, the practice of formal instruction in developing learners＇ critical thinking and related empirical studies are rarely seen. This pilot research, selecting four major critical thinking skills, is aimed to study the effects of formal instruction on the development of Chinese college students＇ critical thinking ability. With the quantitative and qualitative research, the findings indicate that the intensive instruction is effective in improving the sample＇s critical thinking ability, NOT in terms of the observed behavioral change, BUT in terms of their unobservable mental awareness.