Since requesting happens in a circumstance of imbalance, the speaker ought to continuously respect the principles of politeness without consideration to the question of their request. This study investigated the effect of strategy training of speech acts of asking and statements of regret on developing Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic performance and critical thinking. According to the nature of the treatment, it was decided to select the participants who had not had enough language exposure at the language institute before the study. For this, before conducting an Oxford English Test (OPT), it was expected to select those whose scores would fall between one standard deviation (+1SD) above the mean and one standard deviation (-1SD) below the mean as the cut-off criterion. Finally, 80 out of 114 Iranian EFL male and female learners from six language classes in intermediate level of proficiency were chosen. Next, they were divided randomly into two experimental and control groups (20 males and 20 females, for each group). A mixed-method design was utilized; the qualitative data collected via interview was used to triangulate the quantitative data collected. The data were investigated by two skilled raters, specified in applied linguistics to recognize the effectiveness of strategy training of request and apology speech acts. The data were keyed into the SPSS. 22. The finding showed that there was an important positive consequence of strategy training of speech act of request on developing Iranian EFL learners’ pragmatic performance. A meaningful relationship was found between critical thinking and pragmatic performance. Manuscript profile

This study investigates the effect of strategy training on EFL learners’ attitudes regarding the concept and applicability of critical thinking in an educational context. To achieve this goal,80 EFL learners were selected using convenience sampling and homogenized based on the Oxford Placement Test.They completed a questionnaire adapted from Stupple et al.(2017) to assess their attitudes toward critical thinking,which served as the pre-test. Subsequently,the participants were divided into experimental and control groups.The experimental group underwent strategy training over10 sessions,during which various strategies were explained, and participants practiced using them to solve problems and exchange feedback.Additionally,they discussed the applicability and challenges associated with critical thinking in an educational context.The control group received mainstream instruction.After the treatment,both groups completed the same critical thinking questionnaire as the posttest.Furthermore,qualitative interviews were conducted with participants from the experimental group to gain an in-depth understanding. The data analysis revealed significant changes in the attitudes of the experimental group.Overall,this study follows a quasi-experimental explanatory sequential mixed-method design “In nature,the data analysis showed that,in general,the attitudes of the experimental group had changed significantly in the post-test compared to the control group.However,there was no significant difference in the attitude of the experimental and control groups regarding the applicability of strategy training for improving critical thinking and their ability to deploy critical thinking effectively.The results of the interviews and the comment section showed that teachers’ theoretical knowledge and willingness,EFL learners’ preparedness, and educational factors play important roles in the successful implementation of strategy training for developing critical thinking among EFL learners.” Manuscript profile