Vahideh Sadat Vahedi - Department of English Language, Qaenat Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaenat, Iran

Nowadays, the development of critical thinking skills has gained widespread appraisal byeducators in ESL/ EFL field. However, the interconnection between critical thinking strategytraining, learners cognitive style and their reading comprehension represent a case of promisenot yet explored thoroughly. The present study attempted to investigate the effect of criticalthinking skill training on field independent/field dependent EFL learners readingcomprehension. To this end, 140 highly homogenous students were chosen out of 150 on thebasis of the reading section of a TOEFL test and then, two intact groups of participantsshaped; there were 80 students in the experimental group benefiting from critical thinkingskill training program along with their regular reading course and 60 students in the controlgroup not provided with critical thinking skill training program. The participants were alsorequired to answer GEFT to determine their distribution along the continuum of FieldIndependent (FI)/ Field dependent (FD). After the tutorial, a reading comprehension test wasadministered to the two groups.The data were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests.The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in thecontrol group in the reading achievement posttest. Moreover, FI students gained higherreading scores in comparison with the FD ones.

field-independent, field dependent, critical thinking skill training, reading comprehension