The effect of the continuation task on senior high school students’ critical thinking in EFL writing using interactive alignment theory

As thinking quality has become an elemental part of contemporary education, the cultivation of critical thinking (CT) has been paid more attention in high school EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching in China. However, in actual instruction of EFL writing, due to the excessive emphasis on the teaching of language ability, the development of CT ability is often neglected. This study is to explore whether the continuation task can promote the cultivation of senior high school students’ CT ability in EFL writing from the perspective of CT dispositions and CT skills. Based on the interactive alignment theory, this research conducted an empirical study on the effect of the continuation task on the CT ability of EFL writing of senior high school students. 100 Chinese senior high school students from two different classes were selected as the subjects. Before and after the experiment, the questionnaire about CT dispositions and the writing test concerning CT skills were conducted. All the collected data was analyzed by SPSS 27.0. The results reveal that the continuation task can improve high school students’ EFL writing CT ability effectively compared with the traditional pedagogical approach. The continuation task can remarkably improve the overall CT dispositions of senior high school students, especially the two sub-dispositions: CT confidence and inquisitiveness. The continuation task also has a significant effect on students’ overall CT skills, which is reflected in the four aspects of interpretation, analysis, inference and explanation. This study yields several valuable insights for the CT-integrated teaching strategies in EFL writing classrooms and the further research on EFL writing pedagogy.