the relationship between critical thinking and reading strategies

during the process of reading, sometimes learners use ineffective and inefficient strategies and some factors may influence their use of strategies. perhaps critical thinking is one of these factors. this study aims to identify those categories of reading strategies that are mostly used by iranian efl learners and to see if there is any significant relationship between the critical thinking ability of these learners and their use of reading strategies. it also aims to investigate if there is any significant difference between critical thinking of male and female learners. seventy-five iranian efl senior students (35 males and 40 females) majoring in english literature and translation participated in this study. based on the purpose of the study, two questionnaires were administered to the participants: honey’s (2004) critical thinking questionnaire (adapted from naieni, 2005) and a reading strategy questionnaire (adapted from shang, 2010). descriptive statistics indicated that the most frequent use of reading strategies was metacognitive strategy and the results of the statistical analyses revealed a low significant correlation between the learners’ critical thinking ability and their overall use of reading strategies. the participants’ critical thinking ability also correlated weakly but positively and significantly with their use of each one of cognitive, metacognitive, and compensation strategies. moreover, a t-test showed that there was a significant difference between male and female learners in their critical thinking; males’ critical thinking ability was higher than that of females. the present study can help teachers become aware of the importance of increasing students’ critical thinking ability and teaching them how to use this ability.