THE CORRELATION BETWEEN CRITICAL THINKING AND READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM STUDENTS’ OF UIN RADEN FATAH PALEMBANG

Theoretically, critical thinking influences the reading comprehension of students. Therefore, the aims of the study were to find out whether critical thinking had any significant correlation to reading comprehension of English Education Study Program Students at UIN Raden Fatah Palembang; and whether it influenced their reading comprehension. The study was in the form of correlational research method. The population of the study was 636 active EFL students. By using purposive sampling technique, there were 108 students involved as participants in this research. The data were obtained by using two instruments which were critical thinking test and reading comprehension test. To answer the first problem, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used. From the data analysis, it was found that there was no significant correlation between students’ critical thinking and their reading comprehension since the p-value was (.20) greater than significance value (.20> .005). As the result, the second and the third problem were eliminated. In short, critical thinking did not have any relation to reading comprehension of English Education Study Program students of UIN Raden Fatah Palembang. Keywords: Reading interest, reading comprehension achievement, EFL student