An empirical study on the cultivation of critical literacy of Chinese college students

Liping Zhang

（Department of Foundation, Shandong Polytechnic,Shandong Jinan 250104）

Abstract：With the rapid development of the information age, education in many countries has focused on improving people's critical thinking and creative ability. The significant task of education of the future is to develop creative and critical thinking. It is obvious that critical literacy is already a consensus as one of the important qualities of human beings. Students should give up blind obedience without thinking, without doubt. It is a challenge and target to cultivate students’critical spirit and creative spirit. Hence, it is necessary to find out how to cultivate students’critical literacy for teachers and educators.

Key words：empirical study；cultivation；critical literacy ；college students

一、Introduction

With the rapid development of the information age,education in many countries has focused on improving people's critical thinking and creative ability. The United States has put forward 21st century skills,while other countries have put forward “21st century literacy”and “21st century competence”accordingly.Throughout the world these programmatic documents on the future of education, almost without exception,mention critical literacy. In May 2015, the “world education BBS” of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization in South Korea,published the“Declaration of Incheon”. The declaration put forward the education of the future: to develop creative and critical thinking and curiosity. It is obvious that critical literacy is already a consensus as one of the important qualities of human beings.

In recent years, with the rapid pace of education construction based on information technology in China,education“Internet+”represented by Mooc, Micro-Course Online Video and flipped classroom has been formed.“Internet+”provides education with abundant resources and efficient information teaching methods, promotes the reform of teaching mode, and enables education industry to see a broader prospect of development. The Internet overcomes the limitations of time and space,provides students with massive resources, gives them more freedom and choice, and provides a new way for the development of students' core literacy. The traditional education mode in China is characterized by the teacher's domination of classroom teaching.Teachers are the authority of knowledge and have absolute authority. In this process, standardized answers are required in exams and unified answers are required in class. Students tend to blindly obey without thinking, without doubt, and lack of critical spirit and creative spirit. Hence, it is necessary to cultivate students’critical literacy.

二、Organization of the Text

（一）Literature review

Critical literacy emerged in the 1970s and it has recently been applied in applied linguistics．Critical literacy is defined by P．Freire and D．Macedo①as “a dialectical process which involves not only reading the word，but reading the world”．Critical literacy relies on the idea that a reader approaches the meaning of text by way of construction and understands textual meaning in the context of social，historical，and power relations rather than being a meaning extractor.

Some frameworks have been developed in comprehending critical literacy. Critical literacy starts with questioning power relations . Some educators conceive of literacy in broader，socio -cultural and political terms，sometimes referring to it as“critical literacy”②．Social conflicts or struggle are ultimately questions about the control of information and official knowledge③. The ultimate aim of critical literacy is therefore to encode socialpower structures in a text, highlighting inequalities to raise awareness of better social changes (Wallace,2008: Freire & Macedo. 1987 in Gregory & Cahill. 2009;Comber& Simson④.Zhihui Fang proposes using functional Language analysis to cultivate students' disciplinary literacy and critical literacy.⑤focused on how to become an effective literacy teacher.⑥argues that“l(fā)iteracy instruction in academic disciplines should move to embrace an emphasis on discipline-specific practices that promote simultaneous engagement with disciplinary language and disciplinary content.”

（二）Research Objective and Research Questions

1.Research Objective

This study aims to describe the current situation of critical literacy of Chinese college students through experimental statistics and discuss how to cultivate students' critical literacy.The experimental subjects are 100 college students, including different majors, genders and grades.

2.Research Questions

（1）What is the current status of critical literacy of Chinese college students?

（2）Is the cultivation of critical literacy effective for college students?

（3）Is there a relationship between gender and critical literacy?

（4）What kind of critical literacy training strategies are more effective?

3.Methodology and data

Documentary method;

Action research method;

Questionnaire: The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, CCTDI

Focus Group Interview;

In-depth interview;

Case study;

The data on these issues are collected by questionnaires，interviews and observations etc.

4.Findings and discussion

According to the samples we have collected, the overall situation of Chinese college students'critical literacy quality is not satisfactory.Students are used to believing what the textbook and teacher says. In addition, they are easily to follow and accept the rumors and opinions and ideas online.The college students have formed the habit of reading and learning but not thinking independently. They are lack of capability of creation and questioning. It is proved that the appropriate methods and strategies of cultivation of critical literacy is effective for college students.

Our experiments and interviews show there is not obvious relationship between gender and critical literacy.

During the teaching process, teachers can encourage students to express their own ideas and opinions respectively after putting forward a problem.Teachers’ roles are analyzing and summarizing the answers of different students but not giving a subjunctive judge. Teachers can hold some debates,interviews and role-plays to create situations and atmosphere for cultivation of college students’critical literacy. It is a long-run target and should be developed step by step.

（三）Conclusion

With the rapid development of the information age,education should be focused on improving people's critical thinking and creative ability.The significant task of education of the future is to develop creative and critical thinking. It is a challenge and target to cultivate students’ critical spirit and creative spirit.Hence,it is necessary to find out how to cultivate students’critical literacy for teachers and educators.

★Fund projects：This work is supported by Shandong Provincial Institute of Education Sciences: Research on the Reform of Public Foreign language Teaching in higher Vocational Education based on the cultivation of students' Professional ability (grant no.2018JXY3061); Social Science Planning Research Project of Shandong Province: Research on English Teaching content and Teaching Mode of Rail Transit Industry in higher Vocational Education (grant no. 19CPYJ101).

Notes：

①Freire，P．，and D．Macedo．Literacy: Reading the Word＆the World[M]．South Hadley: Bergin ＆ Garvey,1987.

②Luke，A.Two takes on the critical． In B．Norton ＆ K．Toohey (Eds)， Critical pedagogies and language learning.Cambridge[M].England: Cambridge University Press,2004：21-29.

③Luke A.Critical Literacy: Foundational note[J].Theory into Practice,2012(01):4-11.

④Wallace C.EAL.Learners and Critical Reading [C]. NALDIC conference. November,2008.

⑤Fang,Zhihui,Danling Fu and Linda Leonard Lamme.From scripted instruction to teacher empowerment:supporting literacy teachers to make pedagogical transitions.Literacy April 2004.59-64.

⑥Fang,Zhihui (2012).Language Correlates of Disciplinary Literacy[J].Top Lang Disorders ,2012(01):19-34.