1、1The Essential English Teaching and the Speculative Ability Cultivation in English MajorAbstract. The Essential English is an important compulsory course for the English majors and also one of the important language practice course， even the key courses to help students learn to adapt to their profe
2、ssional learning. And its teaching is the basic for students to study language well. But， at present， the basis of professional English teaching in English language skills training focus on imitative memory and ignore the cultivation of students ability of speculation， innovation and problems analyz
3、ing， eventually leading to English major students serious shortage in thinking and knowledge structure， cultural background information and so on. And， considering the social demand of talents， the employers need now is no longer talents with only English skills， but talents with broad knowledge and
4、 good speculation， so English professional teaching should attach importance to the cultivation of speculative ability. In this thesis， Essential English and speculative ability are briefly introduced. And based on this， the cultivation of speculative ability in Essential English teaching of English
5、 majors is 2emphasized. Key words： essential English， professional English， speculative ability， principle， methods 1 Overview on Essential English 1.1 The Definition of Essential English As a compulsory comprehensive skills course for the English majors， Essential English are setting four terms， ge
6、nerally for six credits. Its name “Essential English” experienced the following period in our country. Before1980， “English intensive reading” in our country college English major course mainly adopt the grammar translation method and audio-lingual method for the teaching. The grammar translation me
7、thod pays attention to words memorizing and grammar rules analyzing， but ignore the social interactional function of language. The audio-lingual method is based on the behaviorism theory， only emphasizing mechanical practice of language skills. Late in 1980， “English intensive reading” change into “
8、Essential English” aiming to reflect thoughts and ideas of the whole language approach. After 2000， “comprehensive English” renamed into “Essential English”， and began to anew the understanding of students subjectivity， and pay attention to 3cultivate students comprehensive ability of language commu
9、nication. Concerning its definition， Essential English can be divided into the broad points and narrow points. The broad one is a course group， referring to the sum of kinds of basic courses of the lower grade English majors， generally including the Essential English （also called the comprehensive E
10、nglish or intensive reading） ， English listening comprehension， English conversation， English reading， English writing and English grammar. The narrow one refers to Essential English （also called comprehensive English or intensive reading）. Listening， speaking， reading， writing and grammar， as indep
11、endent courses in course group， have the different teaching methods. However， fundamental English teaching pays attention to the cultivation of the students comprehensive ability. Although in the different phases the teaching goal is also different， overall speaking， basic English teaching focus on
12、the comprehensive training and cultivation of ability of listening， oral English， reading， writing and translating， with a certain universal teaching method. 1.2 The Relationship between Fundamental English and Professional English 4Fundamental English teaching is the foundation of students language
13、 learning， and professional English teaching aims to the practical application of the basic English mastered by students. In the teaching， there are many similarities and differences between Basic English and professional English. In this paper， we only explain their similarities in details while un
14、derstanding the similarities is positive to improve the efficiency of the fundamental English teaching. First， the two have similarities in the aspect of basic knowledge learning. Whether basic or professional English learning are concerned， both of them must study the fundamental knowledge， such as
15、 pronunciation， grammar and vocabulary. Whether for teaching or learning， pronunciation is the first pass. Without great foundation of pronunciation， learners will face difficulties in reading for incapable of reading or misreading， influencing their word memorizing and word accumulation. And the sh
16、ortage of word accumulation must bring great difficulties for reading. In addition， the incapability of accurately mastering pronunciation and connecting words sound and meaning also bring all kinds of difficulties to listening. Therefore， Essential English 5teachers should firstly seize this pass.
17、Second， the two have similarities in the aspect of application ability. In the application ability training， the Basic English and professional English also have something in common. English learning is a process to acquire skills instead of a process to regard English as the knowledge to learn. So，
18、 in teaching process， we should pay much attention to students language skills training， and the law of language learning， correctly dealing with the relationship between language skills， namely listening， speaking， reading and writing， and ensuring coordinated development of languages basic abiliti
19、es. Finally， the two have similarities in the aspect of language and culture. Both Basic English and professional English are close to culture. Different nations have different cultural background （not emphasize the differences among culture）. In the future work or other foreign activities， students
20、 will contact and face the different culture， which requiring teachers to focus on the teaching of cultural differences and the cultivation of the students sensitivity in cross-cultural communication. All in all， Basic English learning is the foundation of 6professional English， while learning the B
21、asic English let learning professional English become possible. At the same time， the teacher also should master fundamental English teaching from three aspects， namely basic knowledge， application ability and language culture， and lay the good foundation for students professional English study. 2 T
22、he Current Situation of Essential English Teaching in English Major Considering the present circumstances， the current situation of universitys Essential English teaching is not optimistic， with many English teachers only focusing on the improvement of the students language ability， and regarding th
23、e pass of TEM4 and TEM8 as teaching goal. Students just try to memorize words and grammar， without improving speculative ability， so the development their language communicative competence suffered serious obstacle. Especially in speech or the oral communication， because of lacking logical thinking，
24、 students are disorganized in the language organization， and sometimes even feel have nothing to say. In speech and debate， students often， without bright view and outstanding theme， are not good at the arguing and discussing and rattling while facing a little difficulty without considering the 7app
25、ropriateness. In writing， many students dont know how to start. Even if wrote the article， the view is not clear and the center is not outstanding. And they are lack of ability of analysis， thinking， judgment and inference. All of these are the detail reflection of students lack of speculative abili
26、ty in fundamental teaching in the English major. The reasons can be concluded as follows： The first aspect is from students. Most students only pay attention to English textbooks and study in major area， unwilling to spend time and energy understanding and studying history， politics， philosophy， soc
27、iety， and the other aspects of knowledge， even seldom reading the newspapers and magazines， and confine them in a small major field. When they are asked to have a discussion on “environment problem”， the students ideas only limit to something like water pollution and air pollution without any more t
28、opics. Limited vocabulary and narrow range of knowledge makes the students thinking hard to active， and the innovation ability and the speculative ability is out of the question. The second aspect is from the teachers. Teachers， during teaching English， often ignore the cultivation of students analy
29、sis， problem solving， thinking， imagination and 8innovation ability. And some teachers only repeat what the books say， with little debate， speeches and other activities in their class， without creating good environment for students speculative ability training in classroom. The second aspect is from
30、 the teaching approach. Most English teachers only pay attention to mindless imitation and practice， and ignore the cultivation of creativity established on the basis of imitation. In their class， the simple dialogue， such as retelling and replacing， are often taken， and the activities in training s
31、tudents speculative ability and creation ability， like speech， discussions and debate， are seldom seen. The fourth aspect is from the universities. Universities do not implement the issue on cultivating students speculative ability， but totally let it drift， making teachers fail to treat the problem
32、. 3 Overview on Speculative Ability 3.1 The Connotation of Speculative Ability The term “critical thinking skills” is widely in the west. Among them， “ critical” is from two roots in Greek： kriticos （appreciative judgment） and kriterion （standard） ， and its meaning is “using appropriate evaluation s
33、tandard， conscious thinking， and finally make rational judgment”（Paul 9& Elder， 2006）. In our country， many scholars explain it as “critical thinking ability”. Among them， Wen Qiufang suggested to translate it as “high-level thinking ability”. But now， more scholars tend to translate it as “speculat
34、ive ability”， because they think this explanation is more accurate than “high-level thinking ability” and can highlight the training goal of higher education. On the definition of critical thinking skills， different scholars have different views. The director of the center Paul and Elder have given
35、the definition of critical thinking： “In order to determine the true value of a thing， to use appropriate evaluation criteria， conscious thinking， and ultimately making a reasoned judgment“， which consists of three dimensions： analysis， evaluation， and improvement. Modern Chinese Dictionary （2002） i
36、nterpreted the word of speculative as： “the use of logical deduction and pure theory， pure concept of thinking； think and discrimination.” Qiufang Wen has pointed out that the capacity for critical thought is just an important part of the thinking ability， it does not contain all the thinking abilit
37、y， such as the image of the thinking ability does not belong to the scope of the capacity for critical thought. Capacity for critical thought 10students should have the logic thinking ability， abstract thinking， effective reasoning ability， argument evaluation capacity. The capacity for critical tho
38、ught is rich in content， and includes not only the spirit of independent thinking and creative spirit， but also contains the comparison， analysis， synthesis， reasoning， testing， evaluation of the core skills of general thinking ability. From ancient times， one of the important manifestations of lear
39、ning ability is a critical thinking skill. Learning and thinking are indispensable， and closely linked to each other. Confucius once said： “Learning without thinking is labor lost； thinking without learning is perilous.” Great Master Dainian Zhang also suggested that one of the scholarships is to th
40、ink and learn unity. Learning is the basis of thinking； thinking is learned on the basis of further independent thinking. The English majors syllabus clearly states： “It should make an effort in the teaching of professional courses train students to analysis and synthesis， abstraction and generalization， multi-angle analysis of the problem and a variety of thinking skills and identify problems. In the teaching， it is necessary to correctly handle the relationship between language skills training， thinking ability and
