THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFL LEARNERS’ CRITICAL THINKING, AND METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES

This study was an attempt to explore the relationship among English as a Foreign Language learners’ critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies. Therefore, 135 participants (46 males and 89 females) majoring in English translation and literature and different ages (19 – 29) were selected non-randomly from Islamic Azad University of Karaj, Iran, and were asked to complete three questionnaires in 70 minutes. The instruments in this study included Peter Honey’s (2005) Critical Thinking Questionnaire (consisting of 30 items), and Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaires (Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire and Structured Retrospective Self–report Questionnaire). The relationship among critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies was investigated using Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient, and non-parametric equivalent Spearman-Brown correlation. The obtained results confirmed that there is a significant and positive relationship between EFL learners’ critical thinking and metacognitive strategies, self-report and metacognitive strategies. Considering the metacognitive strategies as the predicted variable, it was revealed that both critical thinking and self-report could significantly predict metacognitive strategies of the learners. However, it was observed that self-report makes the stronger contribution to predicting metacognitive strategies of the learners.