The Relationship between Critical Thinking and English

Reading Achievement in Taiwanese EFL Students

Yen-Ju Hou, Shu Zen College of Medicine and Management, Taiwan

Abstract: Critical thinking has been considered an essential skill for learning and working (Allen,
2004; Nilson, 2003; Paul & Elder, 2006). Studies have found that critical thinking has significant
impact on students’ learning ability and academic achievement (Betoret, 2007; Hsu, 1997; Hung,
2007; Kuo, 2000; Sternberg, 1997). The study aims to discover what levels and what types of critical
thinking Taiwanese students possess, the differences of critical thinking that good and poor language
learners possess, and the relationships between critical thinking and EFL students’ English reading
achievement. A total of 341 first-year students in a private junior college in south Taiwan participated
in the study. All participants were asked to complete an English proficiency reading test (GEPT, ele-
mentary level) and a critical thinking test (CTT, II) regarding identifying assumptions, inferences,
deductions, interpretations, and evaluations. It’s hoped that the findings can help to gain more under-
standing about the diversity of language learner and to keep an eye on the training of critical thinking
for both teachers (to participate in strategy training) and language learners (to learn more efficiently
and effectively).

Keywords: Critical Thinking, English Reading Performance

Introduction

C
RITICAL THINKING HAS been recognized as an essential skill for learning and
working (Allen, 2004; Nilson, 2003; Paul & Elder, 2006). However, the test-oriented
educational system in Taiwan emphasizes the development of academic performance,
and then leads students to learn without thinking deeply and critically. English has
been learnt as merely an academic subject that leaves critical thinking an unnecessary element
while learning.
Studies have showed that critical thinking is one of the key factors that affect language
learning (Betoret, 2007; Chen, 2002; Hsu, 1997; Hu, 1994; Yeh, 1991). It is to say that good
language learners are more likely to know how and what to learn well toward language
learning. Moreover, educators have proposed that one who has higher critical thinking skills
is more likely to acquire higher comprehension (Cheng, 2003; Ennis, et al, 1985; Paul, 1990).
Among research findings, it was found that critical thinking significantly affects students’
learning ability and academic achievement (Betoret, 2007; Hsu, 1997; Hung, 2007; Kuo,
2000; Sternberg, 1997). Since there are various factors that may differentiate the thinking
skills, it is essential for teachers to know students’ different thinking skills so that students
can be beneficial by receiving teachers’ instructions to utilize thinking on learning (Zhang,
2002). Therefore, discovering the ways to promoting students high-level thinking skills has
drawn much more attention than ever in the field of English teaching and learning in Taiwan.

The International Journal of the Humanities

Volume 9, Issue 9, 2012, http://www.Humanities-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9508
© Common Ground, Yen-Ju Hou, All Rights Reserved, Permissions:
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES

Literature Reviews
Ennis (1985) has defined critical thinking as “reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused
on deciding what to believe or do” (p. 45). In order to illustrate how critical thinking is pro-
cessing, Ennis (1996) provides a model of six basic elements, including focus, reason, infer-
ence, situation, clarity, and overview, as a mental checklist for critical thinking. When
thinking critically, one may go through each element in order or skip and back and forth. It
is suggested that one should begin on the focus and end up with the entire overview. It is
important to note that the process of thinking critically should be proceeded from micro to
macro way. For example, without concentration on the main point (focus), one will possibly
lose direction and waste time looking for the answers. At this point, knowing what to focus
at the beginning is much important.
In addition to process critical thinking, researchers, such as Bruner, Piaget, and Sternberg,
have argued that thinking skills are like cognitive activities which can be developed through
practices (Roblyer & Edwards, 2000). A numerous studies have pointed out that critical
thinking can be developed and promoted by practices and activities (McPeck, 1990; Chen,
2003; Lin, 2003;Lin, 2008; Wang, 2003; Kuo, 2001; Lee, 2003; Sternberg, 1994).
Reading comprehension, based on Strauffer (1965), is similar to the process of thinking.
While reading, one tends to find questions and solve it from words and the thoughts
presented by written format. In order to develop ability to comprehend from reading,
knowing the relationship between words and thoughts become an important process while
fostering one’s critical thinking skills (Strauffer, 1965). It is suggested that applying critical
thinking skill to reading is beneficial to the process of comprehension (Rothenberg & Fisher,
2007). Therefore, it is pointed out that the more capacity of critical thinking a learner embeds,
the more likely he/she performs as a skilled and strategic reader (Paul & Elder, 2002, 2006;
Tompkins, 2005).

Methodology

Subjects of the Study

Subjects in this study are 341 students in a private five-year junior college in south Taiwan,
including 94 boys (27.6%) and 247 girls (72.4%). They are all first year students from 8
departments. Among them, 49 (14.4%) are from English Level A (advanced), 232 (68%)
from Level B (intermediate), and the rest 60 (17.6%) from Level C (basic), as shown in
Table 3-1.

Table 3-1: Subjects of the Study

Gender Level A Level B Level C total
level
Boy 6 69 20 94
Girl 43 163 40 247
Total 49 232 60 341
(%) 14.4% 68.0% 17.6% 100%

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Research Instrument
The research instrument used in the study, shown in Table 3-2, consists of students’ English
reading scores and questionnaires dealing with their background, and critical thinking skills.

Procedure
In the first semester of 2010, participants are asked to take an English reading test and
complete a set of questionnaire dealing with their background and critical thinking skills.
Data of this study collected from the survey are processed by The Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 16.0).

Table 3-2: Research Instrument of the Study

Questionnaire/Test Author (s) Year Questions
Background Information Self-created 2010 07
Critical Thinking Yeh, Y.C. 2005 30
Recognition of Assumptions 6
Inferences 6
Deductions 6
Interpretations 6
Evaluation of Arguments 6

Findings

Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

Among the 5 types of critical thinking skills, the ones with higher means are Inferences
(M=2.55), Recognition of assumptions (M=2.28), while the ones with lower means are In-
terpretations (M=1.14) and Deductions (M=1.24), which are listed below:

Table 4-1: Students’ Individual Critical Thing Skills

type M SD Rank
Assumption 2.41 1.05 (2)
Inference 2.62 1.41 (1)
Interpretation 1.16 .90 (5)
Evaluation 1.86 1.06 (3)
Total 1.97 .59

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Students’ English Scores of General English Proficiency Test

The average score of the students is 42.02 of a full score of 120. According to Table 4-2, it
reveals that the score for Level B and Level C students is lower than the average score.

Table 4-2: Different Level Students’ English Reading Scores

Highest Lowest N Mean SD
Level A 113 14 49 71.41 24.03
Level B 96 7 232 39.39 16.77
Level C 69 10 60 28.20 10.07
total 113 7 341 42.02 21.29
Note: The full score of the test is 120.

Students’ Critical Thinking Skills and English Performance

Based on Table 4-3, students’ English level (β= -.518, p < .001), Recognition of assumption
(β= .106, p < .05), and Inference skills (β= .141, p < .05) each significantly predict their
English reading performance.

Table 4-3: Regression Analysis Summary for Variables Predicting English Reading
Performance (N = 341)
Variables B SEB β t
gender 4.137 2.244 .087 1.844
level -19.493 1.774 -.518 -10.986***
major 1.720 2.578 .031 .667
Assumption 2.145 .910 .106 2.358*
Inference 2.129 .715 .141 2.978*
Deduction -.769 .808 -.044 -.952
Interpretation -.388 1.058 -.016 -.367
Evaluation .102 .918 .005 .111

Different Level Students and Critical Thinking Skills

Refer to overall critical thinking skills, Level A students have higher scores then the other
two groups, and Level B students perform better than Level C students. In terms of individual
skills, Level A students perform the best score on the type of inference, deduction, and
evaluation, whereas Level C students have the highest score on type of recognition of as-
sumption and interpretation. Moreover, the difference in overall critical thinking skills, in-
ference, and deduction is statistically significant. The findings are listed below:

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Table 4-4: Descriptive Statistics of Critical Thinking of Different Levels Students

Variable Level A Level B Level C ANOVA
M SD M SD M SD F
Overall CT 2.18 .53 1.97 .56 1.81 .69 5.42*
Assumption 2.35 .88 2.41 1.09 2.50 1.07 .31
Deduction 2.18 1.19 1.85 1.17 1.32 1.24 7.78
Interpretation .92 .81 1.16 .86 1.32 1.09 2.71
Evaluation 2.08 .98 1.86 1.01 1.68 1.26 1.93
Note: *p<.05, **p<.01

Summary of the Findings and Results

According to the finding, summary of the results are presented below:

1. In the study, it is found that students have better critical thinking skills on type of Infer-
ences, Recognition of assumptions, Evaluation of arguments, but weak with Interpreta-
tions and Deductions.
2. Students’ English level and certain types of critical thinking skills do relate to their
English reading performance in some degree.
3. Students who have higher critical thinking skills on Recognition of assumption and
Inference perform better English reading scores.
4. Students with different English level perform differently on critical thinking skills.
Advanced students (Level A) have higher critical thinking skills on type of Inference,
Deduction, and evaluation, whereas basic students (Level C) perform better on Recog-
nition of assumption and Interpretation.

Discussion and Implication

1. It’s found that critical thinking skills do relate to students’ language level and lead to
English performance to some extent, especially the type of Recognition of assumption
and Inferences.
2. Different English level indicates different degree of using critical thinking skills, for
example, the type of Recognition of assumption for Level C students and Inferences
for Level A students. In order to develop Level A students’ thinking skills, teachers
should offer practices by using examples that related to their real lives and information
to training their interpretations and recognition of assumption. As for training of the
type of inference, it is suggested to offer practice for students to draw conclusion by
following the given related clues.
3. Since critical thinking skills can be trained and taught (McPeck, 1990; Sternberg, 1994),
it is suggested that teachers should provide related practice with emphasis of different
type of critical thinking skills for students to develop their thinking skills

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About the Author

Dr. Yen-Ju Hou
Shu Zen College of Medicine and Management, Taiwan

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