چكيده فارسي :
Acquiring knowledge is a part of the process of thinking in which individuals are encouraged to represent their views on different concepts, theories, and explanations. Reading is a necessary skill which promotes the process of learning through improving the abilities of thinking, reasoning, and evaluation. Literary texts, especially narratives, are examples of materials which enhance reading ability, strengthen the power of critical thinking, and can develop reading skills by providing some universal elements which may be common among nations and experienced by them. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of critical thinking on learning environment and its interwoven relationship with reading literary texts. This study explores the extent to which the subscales of critical thinking such as Analysis, Evaluation, Inference, Deductive Reasoning, and Inductive Reasoning, as specified by California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), can predict the learners’ comprehension ability in reading narrative texts. To this end, 115 students majoring in English Literature and Translation at Arak University were homogenized based on the Oxford Placement Test and reading comprehension section of TOEFL (1996). Based on the results of these tests, 93 participants were selected to take part in the study. They performed the Persian translation of the CCTST, Form B (designed for university students), and three narrative texts. The results of multiple-regression revealed the existence of relationship between the subscales of critical thinking and comprehension ability in reading narrative texts. However, evaluation was observed as a stronger predictor of learners’ ability in reading narrative texts
