Abstract

 

This study was an attempt to investigate whether there is any significant difference between the effects of inference and analysis critical thinking skills on intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension. To reach this aim, the 2011 version of PET was utilized to select a homogeneous sample. Ninety four learners of intermediate level from Parsa Language School in Kashan were selected through the convenient non-random sampling. They were given the PET and subsequently, 60 subjects whose score fell between one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected. Then, they were randomly divided into two experimental groups and four classes of 15 with unequal number of males and females. They ranged from 12-16 years old. At the outset of the study and before giving any instruction, the participants sat for a pre-treatment test which was the reading comprehension section of the 2010 version of PET. After administering the pre-treatment test and calculating running a t-test, the researcher was assured that there was no significant difference regarding reading comprehension ability between the two groups prior to the treatment. During the treatment, the first experimental group (E1) was exposed to analysis, while the second experimental group (E2) practiced inference skills about 30 minutes during each session. In E1, the researcher employed the rhetorical précis by Woodworth (1988), whereas the observation/inference chart designed by Nokes (2008) was used in E2. The treatment occurred for 13 sessions. At the end of the semester, the experimental groups were post-tested through the reading comprehension section of the 2009 version of PET. Finally, an independent sample t-test was run to check if there was any significant difference between the effects of inference and analysis on reading comprehension of the learners. The results showed that the participants in the inference group outperformed those in the analysis group. Meanwhile, the participants in analysis group showed progress in post-test in comparison to their performance in pre- treatment test. Therefore, it can be concluded that the present study also emphasize and confirm the positive role of teaching critical thinking skills –in this study, inference and analysis- on reading comprehension.

 

 

 Table of contents

 

CHAPTER Ι: Background and Purpose  

 

1-1 Introduction. 2

 

1-2 Statement of the Problem.. 12

 

1-3 Statement of the Research Question. 17

 

1-4 Statement of the Research Hypothesis. 17

 

1-5 Definition of Key Terms. 18

 

1-5-1 Reading Comprehension. 18

 

1-5-2 Critical Thinking. 18

 

1-5-3 Analysis. 18

 

1-5-4 Inference. 19

 

1-6 Significance of the study. 20

 

1-7 Limitation and Delimitations of the Study. 27

 

1-8 Assumptions. 27

 

CHAPTER ΙΙ: Review of the Related Literature

 

2-1 Introduction. 29

 

2-2 Thinking. 29

 

2-2-1 Types of Thinking. 33

 

2-3 A brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking. 37

 

2-3-1 What Is Critical Thinking?. 41

 

2-3-2 Characteristics of the Critical Thinker 46

 

2-3-3 Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions. 50

 

2-3-3-1 Inference and Analysis. 57

 

2-4 Teaching Critical Thinking. 59

 

2-4-1 How to Teach Critical Thinking. 62

 

2-5 Advantages of Critical Thinking. 67

 

2-6 Problems in Teaching Critical Thinking. 70

 

2-7 Language and Thought 73

 

2-8 Reading Comprehension. 77

 

2-8-1 Reading. 79

 

2-8-2 Comprehension. 81

 

2-8-3 Nature of Reading. 83

 

2-9 Theories in Second Language Reading. 84

 

2-9-1 Process Approach. 84

 

2-9-2 Schema Theory. 86

 

2-10 Reading Processing. 88

 

 

2-10-1 Bottom-up Processing. 88

 

2-10-2 Top-down Processing. 89

 

2-10-3 Interactive Processing. 89

 

2-11 Reading Comprehension Strategies. 90

 

2-11-1 How to Teach Reading Comprehension by Inference and Analysis. 92

 

2-12 Models of Reading. 97

 

2-12-1 Bottom-up Models. 97

 

2-12-2 Top-down Models. 98

 

2-12-3 Interactive Models. 99

 

2-13 Types of Reading. 100

 

2-13-1 Intensive Reading. 100

 

2-13-2 Extensive Reading. 101

 

2-13-3 Scanning and Skimming Reading. 102

 

2-13-4 Receptive and reflective Reading. 103

 

2-14 Critical Reading. 103

 

2.14.1 Approaches to Critical Reading. 106

 

2-15 Related Studies on Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension  107

 

CHAPTER III: Methodology

 

3-1 Introduction. 113

 

3-2 Participants. 114

 

3-3 Instrumentation. 115

 

3-3-1 PET. 115

 

3-3-2 Reading Comprehension Pre-Treatment Test 116

 

3-3-3 Reading Comprehension Post-Test 117

 

3-3-4 Instructional Materials. 118

 

3-3-4-1 Course Book. 118

 

3-3-3-2 Pamphlet 118

 

3-3-4 Procedure. 118

 

3-3-6 Data Analysis. 136

 

CHAPTER IV: Results and Discussion

 

4-1 Introduction. 138

 

4-2 Participant Selection. 139

 

4-2-1 Descriptive Statistics of the Piloting PET Proficiency Test 140

 

4-2-2 Descriptive Statistics of the PET Proficiency Test 141

 

4-2-3 Dividing the Participants into Two Groups. 143

 

4-3 Pre-treatment Test 146

 

4-4 Post-test 151

 

4-5 The Results of Testing the Null Hypothesis. 154

 

4-6 Discussion. 156

 

CHAPTER V:  Conclusion, Pedagogical Implications

 

5-1 Introduction. 162

 

5-2 Summary of the Findings. 162

 

5-3 Conclusion. 164

 

5-4 Pedagogical Implications. 165

 

5-5 Suggestions for Further Research. 168

 

References. 171

 

APPENDICES

 

Appendix A.. 194

 

Appendix B.. 195

 

Appendix C.. 214

 

Appendix D.. 224

 

LIST OF TABLES

 

Table 4-1 Descriptive Statistics for PET Proficiency Test piloting. 139

 

Table 4-2 Reliability of the PET Proficiency Test Piloting. 139

 

Table 4-3 Descriptive Statistics for PET Proficiency Test 140

 

Table 4-4 Reliability of the PET. 141

 

Table 4- 5 Inter-rater Correlation for Writing Section of the PET. 141

 

Table 4-6 Descriptive statistics of the PET scores of the two groups at the outset 142

 

Table 4-7 the Results of Normality Check of the Distribution of scores on PET. 143

 

Table 4-8 Group Statistics for Two Experimental Groups’ PET scores. 144

 

Table 4-9 Independent Sample T-test for Two Experimental Groups’ PET scores. 144

 

Table 4-10 Descriptive Statistics for the Results of the Pre-treatment Test 145

 

Table 4-11 Results of Normality of Distribution of Scores for Reading Comprehension Pre-treatment Test 147

 

Table 4-12 Results of Normality of Distribution of Scores for Reading Comprehension Pre-treatment Test 147

 

Table 4-13 Group Statistics T- Test for Pre-treatment Test 148

 

Table 4-14 Independent Samples T- Test for Pre-treatment Test 148

 

Table 4-15 Descriptive statistics for the results of the post-test 150

 

Table 4-16 Results of Normality of Distribution of Scores for Reading Comprehension Post-test 150

 

Table 4- 17 Results of Skewness Ratio for Reading Comprehension Post-test 150

 

Table 4-18 Group Statistics of Two Experimental Groups on the Post-test 153

 

Table 4-19 Independent Samples t-Test of Two Experimental Groups on the Post-test 153

 

 

 

                                             LIST OF FIGURES

 

Figure 2-1 Elements of Thought (Elder & Paul, 2007) 30

 

Figure 2-2 Critical Thinking Skills. 51

 

Figure 2-3 The Relationship between Skills and Dispositions. 53

 

Figure 2-4 Observation/Inference (O/I) Chart (Nokes, 2008) 95

 

Figure 3-1 Observation/Inference Chart (Nokes, 2008) 128

 

Figure 3-2 An Example of O/I Chart 133

 

Figure 4-1 The Histogram of Scores of PET Main Administration. 143

 

Figure 4-2 Histogram of the Scores Obtained on the reading Pre-Treatment Test of E1. 146

 

Figure 4-3 Histogram of the Scores Obtained on the Reading Pre-treatment Test of the E2. 146

 

Figure 4-4 Histogram of Scores Obtained on the Reading comprehension Post- test of E1. 151

 

Figure 4-5 Histogram of Scores Obtained on Reading Comprehension Post- test of E2. 152