摘要:本文结合阅读设问实例,探讨了如何设计思辨性提问来培养学生的批判性思维能力。
关键词:阅读教学;英语核心素养;思辨性提问;批判性思维
通过英语阅读教学,培养学生核心素养,使学生成为具有批判性思维能力的人,是很有意义的工作。学生对阅读文本的深层理解和思维能力的发展取决于教师对文本内容的把握和解读,以及在引领思维过程中的问题设置。因此,教师需要深入解读文本,挖掘文本所蕴含的丰富信息,读出文本的逻辑关系、内在思想情感,通过设计思辨性问题引导学生去挖掘内隐于文字背后的信息,而这类信息通常在文本中没有现成的答案,需要学生领悟作者的写作意图和品味文本的中心思想,并将自己的生活经验与实际问题相结合,通过质疑、分析和判断,再阐述自己的观点,从而形成批判性思维能力。
阅读理解主要分为三个层次:字面理解、推断性理解和评价性理解。阅读理解的提问类型大致分为三种:
第一,有关事实的提问。
答案在文中一目了然。这类问题涉及文本的大意和细节内容,其目的是了解学生对文本提供的信息和表层意思的掌握。
第二,强调分析和推理的提问
其答案隐藏在文中。学生需要从字里行间推断文章的弦外之音,体会作者的内心思想、情绪和情感。这类问题指向学生的分析、综合和推理能力。
第三,注重观点想法的提问(思辨性提问)。其答案不在文中。学生需要理解文本的主旨和内涵,并在此基础上形成自己的感悟和观点。这类问题直接指向学生的批判性思维能力。
以大家耳熟能详的寓言故事龟兔赛跑为例:有关事实的提问是Who were the participants in the race;强调推理的提问是 Why do we expect the hare to win the race; 而注重观点想法的提问是Whether such a race is likely to occur in reality。
下面将结合高中英语阅读课(牛津大学出版社New Headway Intermediate Unit 9 Family Matters)问题的重设,重点分析如何设置思辨性问题以及如何训练学生的批判性思维。
一、原阅读中的提问
While reading:
Passage 1: Oliver Darrow
1.What does Oliver think of his daughter?
2.What makes him think so?
Passage 2: Carmen Darrow
1.What does Carmen think of her father?
2.What are the things that may cause Carmen’s dissatisfactions with her father?
3.What do you think of Oliver as a father? Why?
Summary of the two passages:
1.What is Carmen’s view of her father?
2.What is Oliver’s view of his daughter?
3.What kind of views are they?
二、重新设置的六个问题
Questions for Passage 1: Oliver Darrow
Question 1:
What does Oliver mean when he says at the start of paragraph 2: “---Which I think is a wonderful age for a child.” Why does Oliver think four is a “wonderful age”? What does this tell us about him?
引导学生深度思考问题时,应从文中的细节入手,设置问题要具体、明确。这样设置问题的目的是让学生关注揭示文本话题和作者真实意图相关的词语。因为Oliver认为“对于一个孩子来讲,4岁是一个美好的年龄”的想法,表明了他对Carmen的态度。 学生通常回答这个问题会直接引用原文中下面的一句话:“that is when they need parents most”。 而经过对文本的深入分析我们发现:Oliver is thinking back to the days before Carmen was a difficult teenager and when she grew apart from him. 所以,学生的回答是片面的,正确的回答应是:Oliver thinks four is a “wonderful age” because it was an age when he and Carmen had a good relationship before it went bad.
在训练学生批判性思维之初,我们可将这两个答案同时展示给学生。学生可通过对比答案,找出差别。通过对比,帮助学生意识到思考问题的过程需要深入体味作者的情感态度。
Question 2:
What does paragraph 3 tell us about the relationship between Oliver and his daughter during her school years? Provide specific quotes to substantiate your claims.
设问目的:让学生找到第三段的潜台词——在字里行间中作者如何去表达父女关系的现状,并要求学生在本段中找出论据。
期刊文章分类查询,尽在期刊图书馆有的学生会根据字面的意思,做出这样的回答:She didn’t fit in very well. 或是She didn’t like her father to make a choice for her. 可提示学生关注下列细节:“she wasn’t happy there”和 “she didn’t like that either” 这两句话表明Oliver thinks his daughter is hard to please. 另外, 在“she must have found it boring”和 “she never really said why”中Oliver 的语气表明他对女儿放弃的真正原因也不完全了解。这说明Oliver与女儿关系不亲近了,生活中缺少交流,所以他只能去揣摩或猜测了。
Question 3:
Explain as fully as you can what Oliver thinks of his daughter. Provide quotes from the passage to support your claim.
设问目的:让学生在阅读完Oliver对父女关系现状的描述后,阐述自己对整篇文章的理解—文章的主旨大意或核心观点。学生有了对前面两道题正确的理解和回答后,进一步对文章的细节做更加全面的思考、分析和总结;在他们引用原文进行说明时,还应表达出这些原文是如何展现作者的内心世界:The quotes reveal Oliver’s disappointment with his daughter and his inability to get through to her. He wants to be friends with his daughter, but he is unable to establish a relationship. 此刻,作为读者的我们不禁会产生这样的一个想法:Is this partly or mostly his fault?
Questions for Passage 2: Carmen Darrow
Question 4:
What do you think is the real cause of Carmen feeling “miserable” as described in paragraph 2?
设问目的:让学生抓住问题中的关键词。本题中的关键词是real。抓住这个关键词,the real cause 有利于引发学生思考下面的问题:Carmen 的痛苦另有其因,不是文中所提到的She had no friends in the new school or she tried to become an actor like her father; 真正的原因是Carmen felt she was pushed by her father in a direction in which she didn’t want to go. Carmen resented this. Carmen felt miserable because she was doing what he wanted and not what she wanted herself.
Question 5:
How would you characterize Carmen’s feelings for her father? Give examples or quotes to support your claims.
设问目的:让学生对全文的细节再次进行评价的思维过程,同时教师也可通过学生的回答了解他们是否已掌握文章的核心思想和作者的观点或情感态度等。学生通过对下列关键词或语义的分析,如 “the best was always what he wanted” , “I’m not at all like him”和“He chose my school and I hated it”,可以概括得出:She felt her father was selfish and controlling. Her insistence that she was not like him showed her desire to be apart from him and indicated that she thought he wasn’t loving and considerate.
Questions on both Passages
Question 6:
After reading both passages, which writer do you think is more accurate in their description of past events and their point of view of the other person?
这个问题具有开放性。需充分讨论,在交流和分享中鼓励学生陈述自己的观点和理由。它不仅需要学生对文本中作者的观点、写作意图、写作形式进行分析和评判,而且要对比和反思作者的立场和情绪,还要利用自己已有的知识和经验对同一问题进行多方位、多角度的思考,逐渐形成自己的判断和观点,从而在实践中锻炼批判性思维能力。
三、培养学生批判性思维能力的策略
1. 激励求异,引导质疑。在教学中,教师应给学生提供一个宽松自由的学习气氛和环境,对学生的奇思妙想采取接纳和欣赏的态度。激发鼓励学生“异想天开”,大胆质疑。
2. 乐于探索,敢于实践。教师要鼓励学生大胆联想和发表自己的想法,并在实践中不断提高交流的有效性,锻炼耐挫能力这是培养批判性思维不可缺少的心理品质。
3. 启发思维,勇于批判。教师要指导学生学会从不同的角度看待、分析和理解问题;提高学生看问题的深度,培养学生思维的灵活性,进而促进批判性思维的生成。
4. 率先垂范,提升能力。教师要充分研究和准确理解文本的论点或作者的情感态度和价值观,提高自身的审辩能力和教学设计能力,为批判性思维奠定基础。
5.研读文本,精心设问。 在对文本解读的过程中,教师要指导学生去分析文本语言、内容、结构,作者的写作手法、情感态度等,有意识地培养学生透过字面信息,由表及里来提高分析、辨别、推理和判断,从而达到对文本更准确、更深刻的理解。
阅读教学活动要鼓励学生去思考、辨析和判断真伪,体会文本中的思维方式和思想内容。这是培养学生用英语去分析实际问题和探索行之有效的解决问题的能力,是培养学生批判性思维能力的主阵地。
参考文献:
[1]王海皎. Contemporary English Language Reading [M].北京:冶金工业出版社,2010.
[2]张冠文.初中英语阅读理解问题的设计[J].中小学外语教学,2016.
[3]李 恺.培养高中生评判性英语阅读技能的研究[J].中小学外语教学,2016.
作者简介:胡欲晓,北京四中高级教师,从事英语教学二十余年,勇于探索,教学成绩优异。
(作者单位:北京市北京四中 100034)
论文作者:胡欲晓
论文发表刊物:《中学课程辅导●教学研究》2016年7月下
论文发表时间:2016/9/30
标签:批判性论文; 学生论文; 文本论文; 自己的论文; 设问论文; 作者论文; 思维能力论文; 《中学课程辅导●教学研究》2016年7月下论文;