ABSTRACT

As the society is much more competitive, critical thinking must be an indispensable ability for the contemporary college students. Furthermore, scholars, whether abroad or at home, deem that critical reading teaching can improve students’ ability of critical thinking in language study. However, in China, teachers focus on explaining linguistic knowledge under the traditional teaching mode, which cannot improve the ability of critical thinking efficiently. We should adopt critical reading teaching mode and related reading strategies to develop students’ critical thinking skill.

Therefore, this research is conducted by the teaching experiment. Fresh men of English major participate in the research and are divided into the Experimental Group and the Control Group. While the Experimental Group is taught to read critically, the Control Group is still educated in a traditional teaching method. Then there are tests taken for the two groups to see whether there exists a significant difference after a semester’s training. And it is necessary to make a comparison and analysis of the results of the tests. Finally, this study is purposed to describe the advantages produced by critical reading and to discuss some related reading strategies. We hope more people can recognize the importance of critical reading and critical thinking, and then be encouraged to do that.

Key words: critical reading; critical thinking; reading strategies

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Related Definitions-3

2.1.1 Definition of critical thinking-3

2.1.2 Definition of critical reading-4

2.1.3 Relationship between critical thinking and critical reading-5

2.2 Related Theories-6

2.2.1 Critical theory-6

2.2.2 Theories related to reading-6

2.3 Review of Researches Abroad and at Home-6

2.4 Summary-7

Chapter Three  METHODOLOGY-9

3.1 Experiment Design-9

3.1.1 Participants-9

3.1.2 Instruments-10

3.1.3 Procedure-11

3.1.4 Data collection-11

3.2 Summary-12

Chapter Four DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION-13

4.1 Data Analysis-13

4.1.1 Analysis of the tests-13

4.1.2 Analysis of the assessment of literature-15

4.2 Findings and Discussion-16

4.2.1 CRT conducing to improving students’ reading-16

4.2.2 CRT conducing to developing students’ critical thinking-17

4.3 Implications-18

4.3.1 Implications for teachers-18

4.3.2 Implications for learners-19

4.4 Limitations-20

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION-22

REFERENCES-23

APPENDIX I-24

APPENDIX II-30

APPENDIX III-36