Abstract:

Critical thinking is an important and vital topic in modern education. It is a sophisticated process which includes skills, dispositions and metacognition. Critical thinking is disciplined, self-directed, reasonable and reflective thinking that one performs when deciding what to believe or do.
All educators are interested in teaching critical thinking to their students. Many academic departments expect their professors and instructors to be well informed about the strategy of teaching critical thinking skills, identify areas in one’s courses as the proper place to emphasize and teach critical thinking, and develop and use some problems in exams that test students’ critical thinking skills.
The subjects participating in this study were a total of 159 undergraduate Iranian students majoring in English as a foreign language in three fields of English Language Teaching, English Literature and English Translation at Islamic Azad University – Roudehen Branch. They were males and females at various ages with diverse social classes. Three instruments of research were manipulated in order to obtain as valid information as possible. The TOEFL test, a standardized and valid test as a measurement of English proficiency was used in order to put the subjects into two homogeneous groups. The second instrument was some critical thinking and reading skills and strategies taught to the experimental group. The third instrument was 50 reading questions used as the post-test. Concerning the nature of the present study, the design of the current research is True Experimental Design.
By examining the evidence and evaluating the results of current research, it is concluded that Iranian EFL critical thinkers are much better at reading than non-critical thinkers. Moreover, the students’ reading abilities in English are enhanced by improving their critical thinking skills. Thus, reading in a foreign language first requires the presence of critical thinking skills and then activation of these skills while reading.

Keywords:

Critical Thinking, Reading.