The Impact of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

In line with the studies confirming the positive relationship between critical thinking ability and language proficiency, this study intended to investigate the impact of teaching critical thinking skills on reading comprehension ability, as well as the effect of applying debate on critical thinking of EFL learners. For this purpose 60 intermediate students were assigned to two experimental and control groups after being homogenized through a Nelson test. Afterwards, a reading comprehension and a critical thinking appraisal pretest were administered to the two groups. During the term the experimental group received 8 sessions of treatment using debate as a classroom activity. To compare the two groups they were given the same tests as a posttest.The analysis of collected data showed significant difference between the two groups on reading comprehension test, but the difference on critical thinking test was non-significant. However, the results indicate that teaching critical thinking skills in EFL context can improve language learning. The study has implication for course designers, teachers and students.