The Relationship among Critical Thinking, Self Efficacy, and Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Ability with Different Proficiency Levels

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship among critical thinking, self efficacy, and Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability with different proficiency levels. To do so, 300 students majoring in English Translation and English Literature were randomly selected from among Bandar Abbas Azad University TEFL university students to shape the participants of the study. The NELSON test was administered to the subjects in order to divide them into three equal groups (each 100 subjects) of elementary, intermediate and advanced. Then the subjects received a validated test of reading comprehension comprising thirty items as well as the Cornell Critical Thinking questionnaire, and the self-efficacy scale for reading comprehension developed by Ghonsooly and Elahi (2010). The data were analyzed and the results showed that revealed that firstly, there were significant relationships between critical thinking and reading comprehension at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. Secondly, there were significant relationships between self-efficacy and reading comprehension at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels, and thirdly, there were significant relationships between critical thinking and self-efficacy at elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. English teachers and learners could employ the present findings and focus on the mismatch between input they receive and their current learning. This way the classroom interactions could be enriched and would help subsequent L2 development of the learners.