Critical thinking strategies and reading skill

Abstract

The main purpose of the current investigation is to analyze the influence of critical thinking strategies in the reading skill. This study was based on a pre-experimental design and exploratory study which was focused on a quantitative approach. The research involved 39 students there were 18 men and 21 women, whose ages were between 14-16 years old. The instrument used to get data collection was the standardized test PET (Preliminary English Test) designed by Cambridge Assessment English. This instrument contains two texts with five questions each one with a total of 10 questions, the pre-test was applied at the beginning of the treatment while the post-test after the treatment to analyze if the critical thinking strategies helped students in the reading skill section. The results obtained were analyzed through the SPSS software, the T-student statistical test was applied in order to analyze the data gathered from both tests. These results revealed that students got 4,3 over 10 in the average score of the pre-test, while in the post-test the average score was 5,6 over 10. As a result, there was not a great improvement in the students reading comprehension after applying the critical thinking strategies because the time of the treatment was not enough to obtain better results. However, the results of the post-test were higher than the pre-test. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (H1) with a P-value, of 001 was accepted and it is concluded that these strategies were effective to increase the reading comprehension level of the students.