On the Interconnection between Bloom's Critical Thinking Taxonomy & Listening Comprehension Performance of Iranian EFL Learners

Embedded in Bloom’s critical thinking taxonomy, the present study is to find the relationship between critical thinking and listening comprehension of Iranian elementary EFL learners focusing the moderating role of gender. Having diminished Oxford Quick Placement test, the researchers randomly selected 40 male and 40 female elementary-level Iranian EFL learners as the main participants in this study. California Critical Thinking Skills Test and the listening comprehension test designed by Danar Wijanarko (2010) based on Bloom’s Taxonomy was also administered to find the possible significant relationship between critical thinking and listening comprehension of Iranian elementary EFL learners considering gender’s moderating role. Using two-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and regression analyses, the researchers found that there was no significant interaction among critical thinking, gender and listening comprehension ability of the learners. However, the findings indicated that there were significant positive relationships between the critical thinking ability and listening comprehension of both male and female participants. The findings point to the importance of critical thinking in language learning and teaching. The results make an implications avenue for policy makers, materials writers, teachers and learners