The Practice of Critical Thinking Training in an English Reading Course

Xia Tang

School of Foreign Languages, Yibin University, Yibin, 644000, China

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

Abstract: There is an increasing demand for English talents' comprehensive qualities at home and abroad in the process of globalization. And in addition to listening, speaking, reading and writing, the skills of critical thinking, innovation and solving problems independently are also essential. Yet long time’s oversized emphasis on language knowledge and skills training has led to an absence of "speculation" for English majors. Taking English reading course as an example to conduct critical thinking training, the model of "reading - debate - writing" can be applied by asking students to organize an English debate on the basis of fully reading and discussing, and finally to write a composition to consolidate and sublimate the results of the previous reading and debate. And this model can fully mobilize students' subjective initiative, and raise the level of English while improving the critical thinking ability.

Keywords: Reading; Critical thinking; English debat