1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

1. Introduction Along with the formation of the "global village", communication and exchanges between countries are increasingly frequent. English has already become the most common language in international communication. Skillfully using English is seemed as an indispensible part of modern people skills. English writing, as in a written form to convey information, emotion and communication ways, was naturally became the focus of English education. In our country, cultivating students' English writing ability has become a difficult point in English teaching. EFL Learners' second language writing competency is synergistically affected by many factors such as their language skills, vocabulary, grammar and thinking ability and so on. Apart from critical thinking abilities, the rest factors are easily acquired in classroom teaching. That is to say, the lack of critical thinking is becoming a common problem among most students in their learning. 1.1 Need for the study Scholars in educational circle began to realize the importance of critical thinking and set out to study current situation of students#8217; critical thinking ability. Research on critical thinking skills has already become a research subject with great significance in the field of education worldwide. However few studies are concerned with the relationship between critical thinking ability and their writing proficiency. 1.2 Research purpose This study mainly focus on the aspect that critical thinking skills are indispensible components in English composition, which are also prerequisite to creative thinking. While intensify the critical thinking in composition, and investigate students#8217; thinking ability will be the inevitable trend of composition title setting in all kinds of English tests. The research purpose is to find out the current situations of college students#8217; critical thinking competency, and to clarity the relationships between students#8217; critical thinking competency and their English argumentative compositions, thus to provide instructions and useful information for the cultivation of students#8217; critical thinking competency. 2.Literature review 2.1Critical Thinking Critical thinking skills are indispensable components of human history which empower the progress of mankind civilization. Research on critical thinking skills has already become a research subject with great significance in the field of education worldwide. 2.1.1Definition of critical thinking American philosophical association defines critical thinking as purposeful, self-regulatory judgment. It also can be divided into 2 main dimensions, cognitive skills and affective dispositions. The cognitive skills include the interpretation, analysis, inference and evaluation, interpretation and self-regulation. The affective dispositions refer to consciously use critical thinking and thinking habits, containing a total of seven dimensions, which are exploring truth, openness, analyticity, systematicness, integrity, self-confidence and curiosity. Richard Paul and Linda Elder also gave critical thinking a short and concise definition: Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improve it. (Richard. P., Linda, E., 2016). Wen Qiufang (2008) considered critical thinking skills as one can make a purposeful, reasonable judgment to a certain matter based on some criterion. This paper adopts the definition proposed by Richard and Linda. 2.1.2 Definition of Critical thinking skills The term critical thinking skills is widely used in Western countries, Paul and Elder ( 2006 ) pointed out that ”critical#8217; stems from two Greek roots: ”kriticos#8217; means ”discerning judgments#8217;; ”criterion#8217; means ”standard#8217;. They hold the point that critical thinking should be described as to determine the real value of something, use appropriate evaluation criteria to think consciously, and ultimately make rational judgments. Higher education should cultivate students#8217; abilities of abstract thinking, logical thinking, effective reasoning and argument evaluation. John Dewey made outstanding contribution on studies of critical thinking, for which he is honored as father of critical thinking in modern education. He regarded critical thinking as reflective thinking, and defines it as ”Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends#8217;. (Dewey, 1910) 2.1.3 The cultivation and situation of critical thinking skills in western countries The cultivation of critical thinking skills is the primary task of talent fostering in top universities abroad. Under the background of international talents are extremely competitive, Western countries attached increasing importance to the cultivation of student's critical thinking skills, especially the United States. The U.S. government has listed the cultivation of the critical thinking ability as an important task of higher education and added it into the National Education Goals Panel 1993. It is universally acknowledged that knowledge is increasing in a geometric growth, while students only learn and master the knowledge they are taught in the class. It is very likely that what they learned in school is outdated when they are graduate. If we put critical thinking skills, which is ability to solve the problem as the education goal, then students can benefit for entire life Mcpeck (1981) held that the cultivation of critical thinking ability is an indispensable link in education, rather than a free option. And this is the necessary condition of education. 2.1.3 The cultivation and situation of critical thinking skills in China The concept ”absence of critical thinking#8217; was first put forward by Huang Yuanshen (1998) which drew great attention among domestic scholars in the field of language education. The sharp depictions provoked by him are well recognized by various teachers and meanwhile lead to intensive discussions and research on critical thinking since then. Many scholars in China refer to the term”critical thinking skills#8217;as”批判性思维能力#8217;. However, Wen Qiufang (2008) pointed out that the translation distorted the original meaning, and she translated it into ”思辨能力#8217;after discussions with researchers in the National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University. This translation is considered more accurate, that it can reflect the goal of higher education. In China, the cultivation of critical thinking has obvious gap compared with western countries. The gap lies not in the concept but in action. Statements such as pushing forward development of students' innovative thinking, paying attention to the cultivation of the students' ability to analyze and solve problems occurred frequently in different levels of education documents or relevant report in our country. The Outline of China#8217;s National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development, also put a special emphasis on combining study, with critical thinking. The thinking and practice measures of the application of heuristics, discussing and researching methods in teaching were introduced in this paper. The object is to help the students learn how to learn. An old saying goes, learning without thought means labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. We can say that in the understanding of the importance of cultivating students#8217; thinking ability, we have no big difference with western countries. The thunder roars loudly, but little rain falls. Critical thinking is the premise of innovation ability, but the cultivation of critical thinking skills are relatively weak in Chinese education for thousands of years. 2.2English writing English writing is always one of the key part emphasized in English teaching due to it is a reflection of one#8217;s comprehensive abilities. Research on studies of English writing is highly valued in the fields of second language acquisition and foreign language teaching in the international scope. Since it has been developed in the 1960s, a number of second language acquisition seminars are held regularly, and a crowd of scholars are engaged in this research field. 2.2.1Definition of writing Writing is a creative mental work using language or symbols to reflect the objective things, express thoughts and feelings, deliver information and knowledge. As a complete system process, writing activities can be roughly divided into "collection, design, expression" three stages. Differ from free writing of authors, professional writing of occupational groups, writing, in this paper, refers to students use written language to create articles according to the specific requirements to pass the exam, as well as improve their writing ability. Students have to express your novel and unique point of view with fine-tuned and skilled language along with rigorous critical thinking abilities. 2.2.2 English writing approaches Writing is a comprehensive reflection of conceptual work. Zweig （1911） said you must have a clear mind to write. A clear logic mind is indispensible in writing. For most of the time, students are required to state some cases and facts, analyze its causes and then give their own opinions. According to Deane and Odendahl （ 2008 ）, writing skillfully can involve sophisticated problem solving which has been conceptualized in terms of information processing. Hayes and Flower (1981) proposed a well-known writing process model which has gained broad acceptance in the field of writing research. Four major writing processes are stated as follow: First, generate ideas, organize ideas logically, and set the goals. Then, produce the content, express main ideas. Next, review it, improve it with modifications, correct errors. Finally, monitor metacognitive processes that linked first three moves. Hayes and Flower (1981) held that these processes are frequently interlocked in actual writing and concluded that writing involves complex problem solving, in which information is processed by a system of function-specific components. Process writing method divides writing into 3 parts, including pre-writing, drafting and revising, or into 5 detailed stages: examining the topic, collecting data, completing the writing, modifying, editing. Different stages of writing requires the author use different thinking skills, before the author finishing the writing, he need to read a lot of relevant information, conduct a series of comparison, identification and evaluation, discover problem through inquiry; The process of writing is to straighten up our thinking by making our thinking streamline, narrated. The author has to weigh and consider all sorts of arguments, making choices between them; Modifying stage requires the author to re-examine and reflect on the text. So to speak, the entire process of writing is a cognitive process of critical thinking and language use. In other words, the writing process is combining critical thinking and language ability together to help the author express his thoughts and feelings. 2.3Correlation between critical thinking and English writing Why we have to be critical in writing? If one rushes into conclusions only focus on the surface, not to analyze the causal relationship of things, the article will lack its depth and only premised on ”what” question. Without digging the ”why” question will inevitably lead to lack of critical thinking, this is also the common problem of the composition. While intensify the critical thinking of composition, and investigate the thinking ability of students will be the inevitable trend of composition title setting in all kinds of English tests. That is to say, the problem of composition, to a large extent, related to critical thinking. Language scholars study second language writing course speculative ability training from different angles. Their research can be mainly divided into three categories: cultivating learners critical thinking through writing teaching and training; evaluating of the writers' writing ability based on the writing process or finished product; considering writing and thinking as a whole. Therefore, what is the relationship between critical thinking and writing? Wei Jincan （1997） concluded that the writer's critical thinking ability decides the writing level. That is to say, the stronger the ability, the higher level of writing. The process of foreign language writing for us is to use a foreign language to express the thought. As well as native language writing, the author, to a certain extent, depend on critical thinking abilities such as the analysis, reasoning, generalization, in order to achieve the purpose of the accurate expression. However, in the end, the author#8217;s thought must rely on the language expression. It is visible that in the case of foreign language writing, the author#8217;s language ability is in the first place. So, to what extent is foreign language writing influenced by critical thinking? According to Geng Sijia#8217;s (2016 ) result research, junior high school students do have certain CT abilities especially when it comes to critical thinking dispositions. In Sun Junting#8217;s ( 2017 ) study, written time limit is fixed, with the student's ability as the independent variable, the language factor as the intermediate variable. She found that, there is no simple linear relationship between thinking and language factors and foreign/second language writing. We know that time limit composition may interfere with students' language level to some extent and to use their thinking ability. So, when the time limit is an optional subject in foreign language writing, would it make a difference in the students#8217; critical thinking and their writing? As far as I am concerned, students can give full play to their critical thinking capability under the no pressure of time limit. In order to answer this question, I conducted an empirical research. I will explain my methodology in the following research References Dewey, J. (1910). How We Think. New York: D. C. Heath Co., Publishers. Facione, N. C., Facione, P. A., Giancarlo C.A F. (2000). California critical thinking disposition inventory: Test manual. California: California Academic Press. Flower, L and Hayes, J. (1981). The dynamics of composing: making plans and juggling constrains. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate Publishers. Huang, Y. S. [黄源深], 2010, 英语专业课程必须彻底改革#8212;#8212;再谈”思辨缺席症”.外语界（1）：11-16 Liu, Y. P. [刘艳萍], 2010, 思辨能力培养与英语辩论课#8212;#8212;一位美国教师在华教学的个案研究. 外语艺术教育研究（1）：46-49. Mcpeck, J. E. (1981). Critical thinking and education. Oxford: Martin Robert Stone Olivier, S. (2017). Critical thinking. Knowledge Solutions. Paul, D., et al.(2008). Cognitive Models of Writing: Writing Proficiency as a Complex Integrated Skill Richard, P., Linda, E. (2002). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your professional and personal life. Financial Times Prentice Hall. Richard, P., Linda, E. (2016). Critical thinking competency standards. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Richard, P., Linda, E. (2016). Critical thinking concepts and tools. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press ：1-2. Richard, P., Linda, E. (2016). The international critical thinking reading and writing test. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Richard, P., Linda, E. (2016). The nature and function of critical and creative thinking. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Sun, J. T. [孙俊婷], 2017, 大学生思辨能力与英语写作能力相关性研究. 吉林大学. Wang, J. Q. [王建卿], 2011, 英语教学法课程改革与学生思辨能力的培养.中国大学教学（6）: 63-65. Wang, J. Q., Wen, Q. F. [王建卿 文秋芳] ，2011, 国外思维能力量具评介及启示#8212;#8212;我国外语类大学生思维能力现状研究报告. 江苏技术师范学院学报 （7）: 38-42, 77. Wei, J. C. [卫金灿]，1997，语言思维培育学. 北京：语文出版社 Wen, Q. F. [文秋芳], 2012, 中国外语类大学生思辨能力现状研究. 北京：外语与教学出版社 Wen, Q. F., Sun, M. [文秋芳 孙旻] ，2015，评述高校外语教学中思辨力培养存在的问题. 外语教学理论与实践（3）：7-10. Wen, Q. F., et al. [文秋芳]等人，2009，构建我国外语类大学生思辨能力量具的理论框架. 外语界（1）: 37-43. 参考文献格式参照APA格式规范

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

Research methodology The current study is an empirical study that adopts quantitative research method, and specifically through questionnaire and evaluations of English argumentative compositions to settle the research questions. This chapter mainly elaborates on the research design employed in this study, which starts from the research questions and participants, and then followed by instruments as well as data collection and data analysis. 3.1 Research Questions The theoretical hypothesis of this study is that a low critical thinking competency may cause a relatively poor writing. That is to say, critical thinking has a certain influence on the students#8217; writing capability. Thus the purpose of this study is to examine the current situations of college students#8217; critical thinking and relationships among college students#8217; critical thinking competency, critical thinking skills and their English argumentative compositions. This thesis mainly focuses on the following two research questions: 1. What is the current situations of Chinese college students#8217; critical thinking competency and their actual application levels of critical thinking skills in their English argumentative compositions? 2. What are the relationships among college students#8217; critical thinking competency and their English argumentative writing proficiency? These research questions will be further explored in critical thinking questionnaires and college students#8217; English argumentative writing test. 3.2 Research participants The participants of the study are 30 students from a college in Jiangsu Province. Among them 20 students are English majors and others are from other majors. All of them have a good command of English whose score of CET6 ranged from 500 to 550(The total score is 710).Among them 8(26.67%) are male and 22 (73.33%) are female. 3.3Instruments This study is an empirical study with quantitative research methods that mainly adopts questionnaires and college students#8217; English argumentative compositions as the research tools. The measuring equipment I adopted is designed by Wen Qiufang et al. in 2009. English argumentative compositions is stated in the following part.In data processing, SPSS 18.0 is used for correlation analysis. 3.3.1Critical Thinking Questionnaire The measuring equipment we adopted is designed by Wen Qiufang et al. in 2009 to measure the college students#8217; critical thinking deposition, skills and attitudes. The reason we choose it because it is designed for Chinese people on the basis of the advantages of foreign measuring equipment considering the cultural difference. The questionnaire contains 54 questions that measure the students#8217;. All questions are based on 6-point scale from 0 (Strongly Disagree), 1 (Disagree), 2 (Sort of Disagree), 3 (Sort of Agree), 4 (Agree), and 5 (Strongly Agree). However, in order to increase the reliability of the questionnaire, the 6-point scale was designed to be A=strongly agree, B= agree, C= sort of agree, D= Sort of Disagree, E=disagree, and F= strongly disagree. The full score of the questionnaire is 270. 3.3.2 English Argumentative Writing Test Writing Test is as follows: Some people say that children should obey the rules of their parents and teachers, while other people think children will not be well-prepared for their adult life if they are given too much control. Discuss in both sides and give your opinion. Students#8217; actual applications of critical thinking skills in their English argumentative compositions will be evaluated by two experienced raters of College English Band-4 compositions. The raters were especially trained for standards of critical thinking skills evaluation. Final scores of both evaluations adopted the means of scores from the two raters. 3.4 Procedures The English argumentative writing test is designed to examine the college students#8217; actual application of critical thinking skills in their English argumentative compositions, and the critical thinking questionnaire is to measure the students#8217; critical thinking levels. In order to give full play to students#8217; critical thinking, unlike previous studies, this writing test have no time limit. We know that time limit composition may interfere with students' language level to some extent and to use their thinking ability. So, when the time limit is an optional subject in foreign language writing, would it make a difference in the students#8217; critical thinking and their writing? As far as I am concerned, students can give full play to their critical thinking capability under the no pressure of time limit.