Examining the Effect of Critical Thinking on EFL Students’ Performance

Abstract

The current study aims at examining the effect of critical thinking on EFL students’ performance. Therefore, the problematic at hand seeks to examine students’ execution and awareness of critical thinking skills. Moreover, it intends to explore EFL instructors’ perceptions regarding the implementation of critical thinking and students’ performance in the classroom. To carry out this research, a mixed-method approach of both quantitative and qualitative research design was adopted. Accordingly, a formal critical thinking test by Watson-Glaser was administered to first-year master students of Ibn Khaldoun university, as well as a semistructured interview was held with EFL teachers of master, in order to meet the research objectives. The gathered data was analyzed using “SPSS” software and a “thematic analysis”. Ultimately, the results exhibit that both linguistics and didactics students lack critical thinking skills to some extent. Further, EFL teachers approved that the majority of master students are unreflective thinkers and rely on rote learning. Additionally, teachers’ contextualization of critical thinking is somehow undefined with its major principles.