The Effect of Reading Literacy in EFL Classroom on the Critical Thinking Skill and Interest in Reading English of the Students of High Schools in Yogyakarta City

This research aimed to reveal the effect of reading literacy in EFL classroom on (1) critical thinking skill and (2) interest in reading English of the students of high schools in Yogyakarta city. This research employed the quantitative approach with the ex-post facto type. The sample was 168 high school students in Yogyakarta city. The sample was established by using stratified sampling technique. There were three instruments of data collection: a scale with four dimensional answers consisting of 47 statements, essay questions consisting of 3 questions, and a multiple choice question test consisting of 32 questions. The validity of the instrument included content validity, construct validity, and face validity. The data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results of this research show that reading literacy in EFL classroom affects high school students’ critical thinking skill and interest in reading English at the significant value on Wilk’s Lambda test of 0,006. In additions, after it was analyzed separately by using test of between-subject effect, reading literacy in EFL classroom affects high school students’ critical thinking skill by 73,1% and affects high school students’ interest in reading English by 65,5%. Keywords: critical thinking skill, high school students, , interest in reading English, reading literacy