ABSTRACT
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY, LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY, AND READING COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF HALU OLEO UNIVERSITY
MEGAWATI (G2Q1 16 016)

This study aims at analyzing the relationship between critical thinking ability, language learning strategy, and reading comprehension of English Department students of Halu Oleo University. The quantitative research based on a correlational research design is employs to collect the necessary data through a survey of students’ critical thinking skill and language learning strategy, and also reading comprehension test. The population of this study is the English Department Students of Halu Oleo University in academic year 2017-2018. In determining the sample of the study, the researcher employed purposive sampling technique. The result of the study reveals that among four critical thinking dimensions, the English Department students demonstrates the highest score on analysis dimension which indicated their dominant type of critical thinking. Among six language learning strategies, the English Department students demonstrated the highest score on memory strategy which indicated their dominant type of language learning strategy. Inferential statistics results reveal that there is significant correlation between students’ critical thinking skill and their reading comprehension. There is also significant multiple correlation between English Department students’ critical thinking skill and language learning strategy to their reading comprehension. However, the researcher found that there is no significant correlation between students’ language learning strategies and their reading comprehension. It is due to the domination of memory strategy and the lack of other strategies such as social and affective strategy that can promote students’ reading comprehension.
Keywords: Critical Thinking Skill, Language Learning Strategy, Reading Comprehension, EFL students.