The effect of personal self-regulated learning strategies on vocabulary learning by impulsive vs. reflective EFL learners

Critical thinking which is a major concern among educators and psychologists is one of the most important thinking abilities that should be acquired by learners in school and university (Reed, 1998). According to Ennis (1985) and Ennis and Weir (1985), critical thinking is a logical and reflective thinking which needs various proficiencies, tendencies, and abilities that result in reasonable reflective thinking. Thus, this study investigated the relationship between critical thinking and the learners’ learning styles of impulsivity across gender. For this end, a total of 150 Iranian EFL English learners, that is, 75 females and 75 males took part in the study. This study was conducted in one of the institutes called Shokuh Language Institute (ILI) in Tabriz, East Azarbayjan, Iran. By means of Nelson, 150 intermediate female and male were selected. The participants were within the age range of 15-20 having at least 2 year experience of learning English at the institute. The instruments utilized for data collection procedures were: 1) Impulsivity Subscale of Eysenck’s Impulsiveness Questionnaire (I7) (IVE), 2) Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT). Through the study, the researcher made sure that all the participants were homogeneous through PET and 75 female and 75 male learners out of the pool of 200 learners were selected in intermediate level. The data wascollected in 3 sessions during the term. The researcher administered Cornell critical thinking test to the participants to find out about their critical thinking. Then, the learners were asked to fill out the questionnaires on impulsivity learning styles in two sessions. The reliability of the questionnaires was calculated as well. Having collected all the data, the researcher coded and scored the data in order to get interval data for the purpose of data analysis. Pearson Product correlation coefficient was used fordata analysis. Findings indicated that there was not any strong positive relationship between critical thinking and impulsivity across gender. Moreover, the findings indicated that males were more critical thinker than females. However, females were more impulsive than males. The implications are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of critical thinking in EFL contexts

Keywords:

Critical thinking , impulsive , gender