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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of research 
Critical  thinking  was  first  put  forward  by  John  Dewey,  who  defined  it  as  “the kind  of  thinking  that  consists  in  turning  a  subject  over  in  the  mind  and  going  its serious  consecutive  consideration”  (Stapleton,2001).  Later,  the  concept  was  defined from narrow perspective and broad perspective, indicating critical thinking skills and dispositions  respectively.  Critical  thinking  skills  include  identifying  assumptions, clarifying,  focusing  and  staying  relevant.  Dispositions  include  attitudes,  habits  of mind  and  character  traits  (Siegel,  1997).  Norris  and  Ennis  (1989)  defined  critical thinking as “reasonable and reflective thinking that is focused on what do believe and do”.  Critical  thinking  theory  has  been  employed  in  the  second  language  acquisition field in recent years. English writing has been focused on many studies and regarded as a useful way that requires high-level thinkers to analyze the topic and construct the organization  of  the  writing  so  as  to  finish  and  assess  the  writing  topic  (Tian  Dong, 2015). Several factors such as analysis, judgment, inference, revision and assessment are  displayed  in  their  English  writing.  That  critical  thinking  plays  an  important  role was indicated in many researches. Researchers in second language fields believed that with some knowledge of critical thinking abilities, teachers can improve their teaching effectiveness.  Good  critical  thinkers  can  support  their  ideas  or  arguments  by  large number of reliable evidence and construct the logical relationship by utilizing reliable data with source (Karabay, 2015).  
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1.2 Significance of research 
Most  scholars  believe  that  the  cultivation  of  critical  thinking  can  be  integrated into  specific  contents  such  as  listening,  reading,  writing  in  English  instead  of considering  critical  thinking  method  as  independent  content.  However,  the  precious researches pointed out English learners were short of mastering critical thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation and interpretation but teachers attached more importance to linguistic expression and English learners performed poorly in critical thinking (Yu Jiying,  2013;  Li  Liwen,  2011;  Stapleton,  2001). But  in  present  study,  it  analyzed  the English learners’ critical thinking from four elements which are arguments, evidence, recognized opposing viewpoints and refutation as well as fallacies. Besides these four elements  of  critical  thinking,  more  influential  本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。