With the increasingly prominent trend of globalization, English, as the common language of international communication, plays an increasingly important role in university education. As a key link in English teaching, the college English audio-visual oral course not only imparts language knowledge and skills, but also shoulders the important task of cultivating students’ critical thinking. As one of the essential core qualities of modern talents, critical thinking ability plays an irreplaceable role in students’ in-depth understanding of English knowledge, improving intercultural communication ability and cultivating innovative thinking. This paper expounds the significance of cultivating students’ critical thinking ability in college English audio-visual and oral teaching, and puts forward a series of innovative teaching strategies to cultivate students’ critical thinking ability combined with practical teaching experience and cutting-edge education theory, in order to provide new ideas and practical guidance for the improvement of college English teaching quality and the development of students’ comprehensive quality.