单位代码10445学号2011021178分类号H319研究生类别全日制硕士学位论文（学术学位）论文题目 A Study of the Impact of Non-English-MajorGraduate Students’ Critical Thinking Abilityon Their English Writing Proficiency非英语专业研究生批判性思维能力对英语写作水平的影响研究学科专业名称课程与教学论（英语）申请人姓名闫岩指导教师胡艳玲教授论文提交时间2014年5月30日A Study of the Impact of Non-English-Major Graduate Students’ Critical Thinking Ability on Their EnglishWriting ProficiencyByYan YanUnder the Supervision of Professor HuYanlingSubmitted toSchool of Foreign LanguagesIn Candidacy for the Degree of Master of EducationShandong Normal UniversityJinan, ShandongChinaMay, 2014独创声明本人声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。

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（保密的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书）学位论文作者签名：导师签字：签字日期：年月日签字日期：年月日ContentsAbstract in English (I)Abstract in Chinese (III)List of Abbreviations (V)List of Figures and Tables (VI)Chapter One Introduction (1)1.1 Background of the Study (1)1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study (3)1.3 Structure of the Thesis (4)Chapter Two Literature Review (5)2.1 Critical Thinking (5)2.1.1 Definitions of Critical Thinking (5)2.1.2 Critical Thinking Skills (10)2.1.2.1 Inference (10)2.1.2.2 Recognition of Assumptions (11)2.1.2.3 Deduction (11)2.1.2.4 Interpretation (11)2.1.2.5 Evaluation of Arguments (11)2.2 Studies of Critical Thinking Ability and English Writing (12)2.2.1 Previous Studies Abroad (12)2.2.2 Previous Studies at Home (14)Chapter Three Methodology (17)3.1 Research Questions (17)3.2 Subjects (17)3.3 Instruments (18)3.3.1 Critical Thinking Ability Assessment (18)3.3.2 English Writing Task (19)3.3.3 SPSS 17.0 (20)3.4 Research Procedures (21)3.4.1 Data Collection (21)3.4.2 Data Analysis (21)Chapter Four Results and Discussion (23)4.1 General Characteristics of Critical Thinking Ability of the Subjects (23)4.2 Correlation between Critical Thinking Ability and English WritingProficiency (26)4.2.1 Overall Correlation between Critical Thinking Ability and EnglishWriting Proficiency (28)4.2.2 Correlation between Subskills of Critical Thinking Ability and EnglishWriting Proficiency (29)4.3 The Impact of Critical Thinking Ability on English Writing Proficiency (31)4.3.1 The Predictive Validity of Critical Thinking Ability for English WritingProficiency (31)4.3.2 The Impact of Different Levels of Critical Thinking Abilities onEnglish Writing Proficiency (33)Chapter Five Conclusion (37)5.1 Major Findings (37)5.2 Pedagogical Implications (38)5.3 Limitations of the Study (40)5.4 Suggestions for Further Research (40)Bibliography (42)Appendix I (47)Appendix II (59)Appendix III (60)Publications (62)Acknowledgments (63)AbstractEnglish writing, as a significant output to express opinions and exchange information, is considered to be one of the most difficult skills in foreign language learning by foreign language learners. However, at present, most of the teachers are still using the traditional cramming method of teaching in English writing classes. They focus more on the indoctrination of grammar and writing skills while they often neglect the cultivation of students’thinking ability.Critical thinking, as an important thinking ability, has become the research focus in some western countries as early as in the 1960s. But in China, it is in the past decades that critical thinking has been paid much attention to and the research of critical thinking is much less. In the field of second language acquisition, quite few researches are linked with critical thinking even less the correlation between critical thinking ability and English writing. So far, there are very few researches on investigating the impac t of students’ critical thinking ability on their English writing proficiency.Moreover, most of the subjects involved in the researches are English majors in the existing researches. Non-English-major graduate students’writing problems are often neglected. Hence, this study is intended to investigate the impact of non-English-major graduate students’ critical thinking ability on their English writing proficiency, and to put forward some useful suggestions to improve their critical thinking ability and English writing proficiency.This study is conducted in Shandong Normal University. The subjects involved in this study are non-English-major graduate students from a class. The students’critical thinking ability is evaluated by the WGCTA (Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal) designed by Watson and Glaser(1980), and their English writing proficiency is assessed with an argumentive English writing task. SPSS 17.0 was employed to analyze the data collected from the research. The present study is intended to find out the general characteristics of the critical thinking ability of the non-English-major graduate students; whether there is a significant correlation between non-English-major graduate students’ critical thinking ability and their English writing proficiency and whether the non-English-major graduate s tudents’ critical thinking ability have an impact on their English writing proficiency.IBy the analysis of data, the major findings are presented as follows:The non-English-major graduate students’overall critical thinking ability is in a lower-middle level. They perform best in recognizing assumptions while performing worst in drawing inferences. And there is a significant positive correlation between non-English-major graduate students’ critical thinking ability and their English writing proficiency. The higher the students’ critical thinking ability is, the higher scores for them to obtain in English writing tasks. Non-English-major graduate students’critical thinking ability and its subskills have a significant impact on their English writing proficiency. Inference and evaluation of arguments are the most important skills to develop the students’ English writing proficiency.Based on the above research, the author puts forward some suggestions on cultivating students’ critical thinking ability and improving their English writing proficiency. At last, the author proposes some pedagogical implications of this study and presents some suggestions for future study.Key words: Critical thinking ability; Non-English-major graduate students; English writing proficiencyCategory number: H319I I摘要写作作为学习者语言输出的主要手段，是英语学习中较难掌握的一项技能，但是目前在我国的英语写作课堂上，大多数教师采用的依然是传统的填鸭式教学，侧重于语法知识和写作技巧的灌输，忽视了对学生思维能力的培养。