英语阅读教学中学生思辨能力的培养摘要：思辨能力是高素质人才的必备能力，思辨能力的培养已成为高等教育的重要目标。
大量研究表明，在外语学习中，学生思辨能力的培养方法之一是通过批判性阅读，而有效阅读的前提又是分析与批判能力。
本研究将探讨英语阅读与培养学生思辨能力的关系，并结合其他学者的实证研究，分析现今英语专业学生的思辨现状与英语阅读教学中存在的问题，为如何通过英语阅读教学尤其是批判性阅读教学以提高学生思辨能力提供一些英语阅读教学上的建议。
关键词：英语专业；思辨能力；英语阅读；批判性阅读；阅读课堂教学Reinforcing Students' Thinking Power through EFL Reading Classroom Instruction1. IntroductionThinking power is considered as one of the most essential and necessary quality of a well-developed person. The cultivation of students’ thinking power has long bee n a hot topic among most developed countries. The level of thinking power has been considered as one of the most significant standards to evaluate the quality of talents (Huang, 2010). According to the guidelines of national program for a long-term educati onal reform and development, reinforcing students’ thinking power is the primary aim of higher education in China. And it is also what many universities are pursuing. Sun (2011) regards students’ thinking power as an important transferable skill that can be applied in their future career and life. It will be helpful to deal with different even difficult situations they may face after graduation. As an abstract ability, thinking power can help people solve practical problems on the basis of rational judgment (Ruan, 2013).Compared with the basic subject knowledge students have learned, thinking power plays a more fundamental role in enhancing their problem-solving capability. Students can think over different views profoundly and express their opinions freely through critical thinking. At the same time, it is beneficial for students to analyze the experience human beings have gained rationally so that they can carry on the further research and innovation (Sun, 2011). To some extent, students’ thinking power guarantees their ability of independent thinking as well as creativity. It is vital to theirefficiency of learning and facilitates their life-long learning. As the foundation of students’ integrated skills and the necessary quality of qualified talents, thi nking power is truly irreplaceable in the development of education especially higher education and its cultivation needs to be given a high priority.2. The issue in question2.1 Lack of thinking power on the part of English majorsIt is an undeniable phenomenon that the current EFL classroom in China focuses more on the training of learners’ basic and integrated language abilities including listening, reading, speaking and writing. The design of the curriculum and the whole teaching process tend to neglect the development of students’ thinking power. It has been proved with many empirical studies that many English majors’ thinking ability is weaker than those from other majors of the Humanities (Wen & Zhou, 2006). Most of English majors have difficulty in analyzing problems logically and clarifying points thoroughly. When English majors are engaged in answering open questions, and expressing viewpoints both in oral and written English, they usually have no ideas. Even if they have something to express, it is also difficult for them to arrange what they want to say logically (Huang, 1998). Thus, English majors in China have a common problem and just as Professor Huang Yuansheng (1998) puts it, thinking power is absent on the part of English majors in China.2.2 Problems in the EFL reading classroomAs an integral part of their language learning, reading is a required ability of English majors but its classroom instruction is problematic. Sun (2011) points out that most of current reading classes just focus on remembering and understanding. And the current EFL reading class far away from motivating students’ thinking power such as ability of analyzing, evaluating even creating. Besides, teachers tend to act as the center of whole teaching process rather than give learners’ freedom to explore by themselves (Guo, 2013). Both teachers and learners pay more attention to the improvement of linguistic competence in the EFL reading classes instead of the reinforcement of thinking ability. Sometimes learners are even required to do comprehension exercises on a reading text immediately after it is read without anytime for reflections. Actually, these problems existing in the current EFL reading course are not beneficial to reinforce learners’ critical thinking and need to be solved. Otherwise, the EFL reading classroom can not take the role to reinforce students’ thinking power.2.3 The purpose of the researchHistorically, a large body of research has been done on the importance of thinking power. Scholars at home and abroad have also come up with some convincing theories to clarify the implications of thinking power. Since the cultivation of students’ thinking power has been considered as the primary aim of higher education in many countries, its status becomes more and more important. A great number of researchers and scholars have paid much more attention to the reinforcement of students’ thinking power. When it comes to language learning and teaching, many experts put forward the idea that the reading process relates closely to the cultivation of thinking power. However, in recent years, the situation of English majors’ thinking power is not satisfying and, in fact, thinking power is absent from most of English majors in China. Meanwhile, the EFL reading classroom for English majors is not playing an effective role in training learners’ thinking ability. Since this field is well worthy of researching and still has some space to explore, this study aims to look into this issue and, based on the discussion, make some useful suggestions for the improvement of EFL reading instruction to reinforce English majors’ thinking power.3. Literature review3.1 Lorin Anderson’s cognitive taxonomyThe discussion about the definition and the classification of thinking power has been popular among researchers abroad. Many scholars and educational psychologists have their own findings and explanations of this topic. Relating to the level of cognition and thinking, Lorin (1990, qtd. in Sun, 2011) revised original taxonomy and developed a famous six-tier cognitive taxonomy model as is shown in figure1.RememberingUnderstandingApplyingAnalyzingEvaluatingCreatingFigure 3.1.1: Lorin Anderson’s six-tier cognitive taxonomyIn this model, the first and the basic tier in the taxonomy is remembering which demands on the part of learners the ability to recall and repeat what is learned. The second tier is understanding which requires students to identify and explain information. The third tier concerns applying, that is, using what they’ve learned to solve practical problems. In the subsequent tier, students are expected to distinguish and contrast what they’ve learned with other information. Owning the opportunity to question acquired knowledge is analyzing. Then, the fifth tier is evaluating. This step encourages students to have their own feelings and give their own judgments on what they have been taught. Finally, they can reach the sixth also the top tier--- creating. The abilities of invention and creation are achieved on the foundation of the lower five tiers (Lorin, 1990, qtd. in Sun, 2011). Higher education needs to be aimed at developing students’ creativity rather than the acceptance of knowledge at the two bottom tiers.3.2 Wen Qiufang’s Hierarchy of Thinking ModelAs we can see, the research abroad on cognitive ability and thinking power has made great contributions to the improvement of the efficiency of teaching activities. It has provided practical experience to push the reform of education. Even though different countries have different education systems, the primary aim of school education is by all means to foster in the learners the power to think. Based on the fact in China, Wen (2008) has structured a modified framework to assess Chinese EFL learners’ thinking power. In her Hierarchy of Thinking Model, learners’ thinking power consists of two levels--the top layer is meta-thinking power and the bottom layer is thinking power which is the combination of cognitive skills and affective dispositions. Among cognitive skills, the ability of analysis, inference and evaluation can be considered as the core. When it comes to affective dispositions, it can be classified into five aspects including curiosity, open-mindedness, confidence, honesty and determination (Wen et al., 2009). When they are engaged in thinking, students own the confidence and courage to challenge the authority and question what they have been taught for the rational purposes.Besides, in terms of the relationship between these two layers, the bottomthinking power is under the management and monitoring of meta-thinking power (Wen et al., 2009). They are not parallel but each of them is necessary. Thus, the teaching activities in EFL classes need to pay more attention to the training of meta-thinking power and make better use of subjective initiative to improve the level of thinking power.3.3 Related theories about EFL reading and thinking3.3.1 The reading processAll EFL experts agree that reading is a complex process and reading comprehension depends on the processing of the incoming information. There is no one kind of reading comprehension, but a range of comprehensions (Brantmeier, 2003). Smith (1978: 13) thinks that reading will not be completely understood until there is an understanding of all the cognitive, linguistic and motivational aspects not just of reading but of thinking and learning in general. Goodman (1976, qtd. in Ma, 2003) also points out that reading is just like a psycholinguistic guessing game. It is a selective process which involves partial use of available minimal language cues selected from perceptual input on the basis of readers’ expectations (Goodman, 1976, qtd. in Ma, 2003). Using former experience, acquired knowledge and active thinking to analyze information and come up with an understanding of the input in a cohesive and accurate manner is what we called reading (Ning, 2013). Actually, the nature of reading is the process of thinking ( Li, 2003). When it comes to foreign language reading, Day & Park (2005) classify foreign language reading comprehension into six different modes including literal comprehension, reorganization, inference, prediction, evaluation and personal response. These six modes all require the participation of thinking power more or less (Carrie, 2011). And it is quite obvious that all the above studies emphasize the necessity of thinking while reading.Therefore, as an active meaning searching process, efficient reading involves cognition, metacognition, and psycholinguistic decoding and relies heavily on the interaction between literal symbols and thought. Since thinking cannot be replaced during the reading process, the reading classroom thus becomes a necessary interface to train students’ thinking ability.3.3.2 Promoting thinking through readingIn the process of EFL learning, learners are exposed to the target language by taking such courses as listening, reading, speaking and writing. All these courses play important roles in enhancing English learners’ thinking as well as language skills. However, as a major source of input, reading requires all the more on the part of the reader the ability to construct meaning which relies so much on their thinking ability. Ruan (2013) points out that the text input, information processing, and content reflection involved in the whole reading process contribute a lot to the promotion of thinking power. In the reading classroom, encouraging learners to construct meaning by using such thinking processes as analyzing, reasoning, comparing, contrasting, inferring, etc. is useful to promote their thinking. Ning (2013) also believes that the EFL reading classroom does not only help students to acquire information and knowledge, but also provides opportunities for students to use their ability of analytical and critical thinking.Many studies have been carried out on the role of critical reading in promoting thinking. Pirozzi (2003: 326) thinks that critical reading focuses more on the high-level comprehension. Critical reading can be considered as a social process and texts are constructed in certain ways by writers in order to shape the perceptions of readers towards acceptance of the underlying ideology of the text (Kress, 1985: 197). As an important platform for training English majors’ thinking power, the EFL reading classroom needs to carry out enough critical reading activities to reinforce learners’ critical thinking ability as well as creative thinking skills (Chen & Cheng, 2011). The ability of reading critically depends on an awareness of how elements of language can be manipulated by writers, and that language learners need to build up this awareness. Critical reading pedagogy requires close scrutiny of the language in order to see what the writer means between lines. This process relates closely to the cultivation of students’ thinking abi lity. Their thinking power can be reinforced gradually if they are engaged in more critical reading activities.3.4 Related empirical studiesSome empirical studies have demonstrated that EFL reading instructionespecially critical reading instruction have great effect on the reinforcement of students’ thinking ability. One study was conducted by Fu & Kang (2014) in Hunan First Normal University. This study was classroom-based and focused on the effects of critical reading on thinking power on the part of first-year English majors. Before the experiment, a pretest was given, and, on the basis of which, researchers divided the subjects into two classes, a controlled class and an experimental class. Questions in the pretest covered explanation, inference, analysis and summary. The average score of the experimental class was 5.47 and the average score of controlled class was 5.37. The results of these two classes were almost the same. During the following fourteen weeks’ reading class, teachers used the same tex tbook but different teaching methods to teach students in the experimental class and the controlled class respectively. The students in the experimental class were instructed to do more thinking activities such as prediction,reasoning, and judgment in the reading process. On the contrary, students in the controlled class had few chances to accept thinking training. After fourteen weeks, students in these two classes took the same post-test to assess their thinking ability while reading power. Questions in the post-test also covered explanation, inference, analysis and summary. This time the average score of the experimental class improved to 8.02 and the average score of controlled class only got to 6.73. Compared with the results of the pretest, the results of the post-test showed that the students in the experimental class made great progress. However, the thinking ability of students in the controlled class did not improve obviously. Therefore, scholars believe that critical reading instruction has a positive influence on the improvement of thinking ability and this kind of teaching method truly reinforce learners’ thinking a lot.Qi (2009) also carried out a study on the relationship between critical reading and critical thinking. This study used sample interview, observation and feedback to find out results. The teacher in the study adopted three-stage critical reading teaching method to teach a class of English majors. In the pre-reading stage, the students were encouraged to predict what was to be read in the text. In the while-reading stage, students were trained to analyze specific information. In the post-reading stage,students were required to evaluate on what was read. After a period of such training, researchers discovered that learners’ thinking performed more actively in the reading process. And then, the researcher also interviewed some students to know their attitudes toward this kind of teaching method and asked them to answer some open questions which could assess their thinking ability. The results proved that most of the students thought the critical reading teaching method was useful and learners’ thinking made progress after taking such training.The above two studies show that critical reading instruction enhances learners’ thinking ability. Although their conclusions may have some limitations, reading instruction especially critical reading instruction has been proved to have positive effect on promotion of thinking power.4. Reinforcing students’ thinking power through the EFL reading cl assroomAccording to the syllabus for English majors, the training of reading, listening, writing and speaking is basic. Among all these courses, reading is usually placed in a significant place and its training lasts for the whole four-year program. Since reading is a complex process relying on the use of language knowledge and thinking power, the whole reading class including pre-reading phase, while-reading phase and post-reading phase offer great opportunities to reinforce learners’ thinking power if instructors can provide some proper guidance and get effective responses from learners. Based on Lorin Anderson’s cognitive taxonomy and Wen Qiufang’s thinking model, we believe that improving English majors’ ability of analyzing, evaluating even creating is the goal that EFL reading class can achieve. In the light of what has just been discussed above, here are some pedagogical suggestions for the improvement of different phases of the EFL reading classroom so that the reinforcement of thinking power can be achieved remarkably.4.1 Activating thinking in the pre-reading phaseBasically, reading is a process of dealing with the incoming information. Some information is rich-content and closly concerned with the social reality while others is not so worth reading thoroughly. Although there are substantial differences in the availability of incoming information, during the pre-reading phase, activatingstudents’ existing knowledge for students’ thinking should be a priority to begin with because reading comprehension is highly dependent on sufficient background knowledge. Therefore, at the begnining of EFL reading classroom instruction, it is quite necessary for instructors to introduce some background information that is related to the the topic or author of the reading material by showing some pictures or videos. Usually, audio and visual material is more easily to arouse students’ interests and can make the whole learning process more accessible. For example, when dealing with an article about jobs and professions, since the majority of students do not own working experiences, it is hard for them to understand the content. Furthermore, the development of working and the diffenent working systems between different countries would puzzle students. If teachers can introduce the history of working briefly or show some pictures of real working environmrnt or play short video talking about different types of working to students, those who without work experience can not only have visual presentations but also activate their prior knowledge, which helps pave the way for their further thinking during reading. For another example, when students are required to read an article about the American dream, tearchers can first ask them how much they know about this topic. Since some learners might not be not familiar with American history, it is difficult for them to understand the text due to the lack of knowledge of American culture. In this case, students need to get some impression of the basic cultural background so that their thinking can work actively. Thus, it is quite necessary for instructors to provide students with more information sources for them to explore American culture. According to Wen Qiufang’s thinking model（Wen et al., 2009）, it can also arouse learners’ curi osity. In this way, students will try to use meta-thinking power to explore the forthcoming flow of information on the basis of cultural schemata and their thinking power can get activated.Besides, brainstorming and group discussion are also two effective activities during the pre-reading phase, which are beneficial for them to share the existing knowledge and experience so that learners can make adequate preparations for the deep understanding. For example, before reading the article talking about Chinese Spring Festival, instructors can ask students to work with their groups to think of therelevant topics such as listing out other Chinese festivals or thinking about activities for family celebrations as many as they can. If a group of learners brainstorm, they are easily to have more clear ideas about the theme. And in this activity, teachers need to pay special attention to teachers’ discourse to engcourage students to activate their thinking actively and to give them positive feedback, which can help learners to achieve emotional goals such as open-mindness and confidence mentioned in Wen Qiufang’s thinking model（Wen et al., 2009）.Moreover, during the pre-reading phase, based on the title or subtitle, teachers can put forward some thought-provoking questions that beginning with where, what to help learners to make prediction about the content of the context or to read with a purpose. Once learners have initial senses of the purpose and the content, they are more likely to seek out the important information to activate their knowledge and to understand the unknown content much better. Such activity is effective in training students’ skills of inference, which can develop their ability of thinking. All the designs such as activating learners’ existing knowl edge, providing the revelant background information, brainstorming and predicting make preparations to the deep analysis in the following phases.4.2 Reading critically in the while-reading phaseAfter the pre-reading phase, teachers lead learners to the while-reading phase. Usually, the while-reading phase that occupies the longest instruction time can be regared as a vital part in a whole EFL reading class. In order to achieve the reinforcement of English majors’ thinking power, critical reading is indisp ensable in this section. Based on Lorin Anderson’s cognitive taxonomy（1990, qtd. in Sun, 2011）, during the while-reading phase, language learners need to be guided to use higher-order thinking abilities such as synthesizing, analyzing and evaluating to understand the content, explore the implied meaning and make their own judgement. Only through these EFL reading activities can English majors’ thinking ability get improved.During the while-reading phase, since critical reading pedagogy requires close scrutiny of the content in order to see what the writer means by the text, it is better forlearners to turn into the close reading and to concentrate on the detailed analysis of the structure and the content. Usually, after skimming, teachers may lead learners to summarize the main idea of each paragraph or the whole passage in their own words which can train their higher-order thinking ability. Then, basing on the understanding of literal meaning, students need to be guided to analyze the deep meaning contained between the lines and make meaningful connection with the reality to train their thinking ability. If here are controversies in the text, teachers can guide students to find out the differences and make comparisons. Taking the article talking about why people work as an example, the reasons for why people work given by the writer refer that some people think work can provide them with happiness and contentment while some think work is associated with compulsion. Toward the opposite views, instructors can ask students to compare these two opinions, think over this conflict and encourage them to express their own opinions freely. No matter which one they agree with, it is acceptable if they can be supported by sound reasons. Since some articles are attached with implied personal feelings, instructors can also encourage learners to evaluate the attitude of the writer. For instance, there is an article talking about food and eating habits, which is easily to establish connection with learners’ daily life. In the text, the writer describe the obvious differences in food and eating habits between China and Western countries. In China, people pay more attention to the color, smell, taste and shape of food. When friends or relatives gather together to have a meal, the food will be placed at the center of the table and the hospitable host like to put food onto the plates of their guests. But in many Western countries, people may focus more on the nutritional balance of food and they like to have their own plate of food. Westerners and Chinese also behave differently in resturant. Learners are easily to find that some eating habits of Chinese and foreigners mentioned in the article are contrary. On the surface, the writer just describe some differences objectively, actually, it seems that the author owns subjective emotion. Therefore, it is a good chance for instructors to guide learners to infer the implied meaning, which relates closly to the use of higher-order thinking ability. In such kinds of classroom activities, students can have chances to make a link with their previous cognition,apply their existing knowledge to think activitely so that learners can give their own comments or judements on the given materials. The transfer from understanding to analyzing, evaluating can be achieved through this process.Besides, the ability of questioning reflects the level of analytic and critical thinking in some way. During the while-reading phase, instructors are also expected to offer students opportunities to bring up their own questions. Learners are encouraged to raise questions about what they are reading rather than just take everything for granted or passively. For example, there is an article talking about language learning, the writer think it is not necessary to correct errors made by language learners, which is different from the traditional view. Thus, teachers can encourage learners to review their own language learning experience and to put up questions to doubt the point, which is beneficial in training students’ meta-thinking ability. Under the control of their meta-thinking, they can make better use of subjective initiative to improve the level of thinking power. If students are often out of this kind of chance, the reading class they took has less meaning to train their thinking ability.And in the process of class teaching, the way of putting up questions also effects the validity of EFL reading instruction. Compared with the diaplay questions, referential questions can be much more effective in training thinking ability. Instructors need to ask more questions begining with how and why, which can increase the utilization of learners’ higher-order thinking such as analyzing and evaluating. Still taking the article talking about why people work as an example, teachers can ask learners how do they think about the reasons for working or why do they agree with the theme of live-to-eat.Meanwhile, during the while-reading process, teachers also need to pay especial attention to the form of classroom communication. Since discussion is valuable chance to train thinking ability, teachers should change the traditional teacher-centered teaching model to learner-centered model which can protect their learning curiosity and simulate creativity. Giving learners more chances to discuss in group and guiding them to exchange ideas with others, they are more easily to generate new ideas. And being tolerant to the diverse opinions delivered by learners。
