Impact of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills on Reading Comprehension in Higher Business Education

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze the development of critical thinking skills in ESL classrooms as an essential factor for effective students’ learning and providing competence in the professional environment. Critical thinking ability is mental processes, techniques, and comprehension skills that can be applied to question, analyze, and make critical decisions while appropriately learning new concepts. It also involves effective communication, managing emotions, and judging resources. While estimating the effect of developing critical thinking skills on students’ reading comprehension performance, the authors have applied the following methods: performed data collection, data analysis, non-probability sampling method and comparison method. The non-probability sampling method is based on age range, education level, professional training and language proficiency. The results of the experiment indicate the relationship between critical thinking skills and reading competence. The analysis of the research results testifies the effectiveness of critical thinking skills development to improve reading comprehension while taking the Business English Certificate reading test.