On the Relationship between Critical Thinking Ability, Language Learning Strategies, and Reading Comprehension of Male and Female Intermediate EFL University Students

Abstract

This study was going to investigate the relationship between critical thinking ability, language learning strategies, and reading comprehension of male and female Iranian intermediate EFL university students majoring in English translation and English teaching at Tehran Azad University, South Branch. The participants chosen were 100 EFL learners that after homogenizing 79 remained. This study was a correlational one. For the purpose of this study, California Critical Thinking Skill Test (CCTST), Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), and reading section of the TOEFL test were administered. Data were analyzed based on the questionnaires and they were submitted to the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 for analysis. The Pearson- product moment correlation proved that there was a significant positive relationship between critical thinking ability and reading comprehension, as well as a positive relationship between language learning strategies and reading comprehension was found. Reading comprehension was considered as dependent variable. Finally, in order to find whether there was any difference between males and females in terms of critical thinking ability and their language learning strategy use an independent sample t-test was run. The findings revealed that there was not any significant difference between the performances of male and female participants in terms of critical thinking and their language learning strategy use. The findings of this study will be helpful for material developers, syllabus designers and EFL teachers.