A Correlation Study Between Critical Thinking Skill, Grammatical Mastery, and Critical Reading Skill

Abstract

Critical reading skill is important to be learned for the college students. The skill helps them especially when reading journal, writing critical summary, and writing thesis, as their final assignment. The aim of this study is to find out the correlation between (1) critical thinking skill and critical reading skill; (2) grammatical mastery and critical reading skill; (3) critical thinking skill and grammatical mastery toward critical reading skill. The population of the study is the third semester of one of the universities in Surakarta. The sample are 27 students. The instruments in collecting the data are tests. The results of this research show that 1) there is positive correlation between critical thinking skill and critical reading skill (rx l y=0.669); 2) there is a positive correlation grammatical mastery and critical reading skill (rx 2 y=0.682); and 3) there is a positive correlation among critical thinking skill, grammatical mastery, and critical reading skill (R = 0.77). The results of this research show that critical thinking skill and grammatical mastery have contributions on the students’ critical reading skill especially in the students’ score and the process to answer the question of the test. Therefore, critical thinking skill and grammatical mastery can be implemented in teaching and learning of critical reading. An English teacher needs to arrange some activities in his lesson plan which can increase students’ critical thinking skill and grammatical mastery that are related to the teaching and learning of critical reading skill.