Critical Thinking Development Through English Literature

• Main Author: 陳靜儀
• Other Authors: 莊坤良
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62254193758352498441

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 98 === The purpose of the research mainly aims to investigate the relationships between reading English literature and critical thinking development. Classic literary works from poetry, drama, and picture book are incorporated in the study to explore the different reading effects. Through the awareness-raising process and class discussion, this study examines participants’ changes of attitudes, reading habits, and critical thinking development after the research. Fifty eleventh graders, 18 male and 32 female, from six different senior high schools participated in the research. They all read the three works—Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, William Shakespeare’s extracts from Romeo and Juliet, and Shel Silverstein’s The Missing Piece Meets the Big O—and completed three reflection assignments for them. Data were collected from participants’ pre-/post-questionnaires, critical thinking evaluation sheets, and written assignments. Based on quantitative and qualitative analyses, positive effects of reading English literature on critical thinking development were found. More detailed results of the study are as follows: 1. Participants viewed reading literature as pleasant experience and showed their willingness to read it in the future. The participants who failed to form the habit of reading literature or merely saw the linguistic values in literature in the past agreed the values of literary content in terms of developing critical thinking abilities. 2. Male participants tended to attribute their past failure of cultivating reading habit to their lack of talents, whereas female participants ascribed the main reason to their language difficulties in reading, especially vocabulary. 3. Picture book in this study yielded the best effects on developing critical thinking abilities; drama was second to it, and poetry remained the third place. a. Though participants generally considered reading poetry as pleasant, they asked for more time to read before they could approach it with critical thinking. Furthermore, participants tended to perceive reading difficulties even before actually encountering them in reading. b. The more transparent dilemmas appeared in a play, the more critical thinking products were produced. c. Though the theme in the picture book was difficult, the visual impacts facilitated comprehension and stimulated participants’ critical thinking process. 4. In addition to exhibiting positive attitudes in reading the three literary works in the study, the participants consented to the positive effects the three works provided for their critical thinking development. Besides, they attributed their success in developing thinking habit to the aware-raising process and sufficient class discussion in this research. According to the above findings, the present research suggests instructors be aware of the gender differences and their underlying bias before reading literature. Moreover, more literary genres could be incorporated in current English textbooks. Additionally, before reading literature, instructors should try to cope with the anxiety that the students bear in minds. Finally, the awareness-raising process and plenty of class discussion seem to be the two key factors to promote thinking in class. Hence, the study recommends them in reading processes.