Insights into Chinese college English undergraduates’ higher order thinking skills

Abstract

In recent years, educational institutions, administrators, and college EFL teachers in China have advocated for increased emphasis on fostering English undergraduates’ higher-order thinking skills. The relevant studies are widely limited in theoretical approaches without extensive empirical examination of Chinese English undergraduates’ higher-order thinking. Therefore, it is significant to conduct empirical research to explore English undergraduates’ higher-order thinking attitudes and skills separately. This study also assesses their correlation and the impact of different learning stages and language proficiencies on these aspects. By doing this, the study holds substantial significance for empirical inquiries into the characteristics of English undergraduates’ HOTS, serving as the reference for Chinese EFL teachers to implement higher-order thinking instructions. A quantitative design of questionnaires and tests was employed on a sample of 240 Chinese-English undergraduates from Hebei Finance University. The data analysis contained descriptive statistical analysis, independent-sample T-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation analysis. The findings show that although the responding participants have relatively positive attitudes toward higher-order thinking skills, they exhibit variations in their ability to utilize them. Differences in learning stages and language proficiency do not significantly influence the development of the respondents’ higher-order thinking skills. There is no significant correlation between higher-order thinking attitudes and skills among the participants, indicating that having a positive inclination to higher-order thinking differs from having the skills to think.