The current study examined the relationship between critical thinking ability and EFL university students’ reading comprehension at a university site in Iran. The purpose of the study was twofold: (i) to understand if there is any statistically significant correlation between critical thinking skills and reading comprehension performance of Iranian EFL students at the university level, and (ii) to understand whether there is any statistically significant correlation between the two groups (males vs. females) regarding their reading comprehension and critical thinking test scores. To this end, 143 EFL juniors [male (n=24) and female (n=119)] majoring in English language teaching were selected. The participants were five intact groups from the University of Mazandaran, Iran. This study examined this relationship with the help of the subjects’ scores gained from (i) the translated version of Cornell Critical Thinking Test-Level Z, and (ii) their reading comprehension scores obtained from their reading course. A correlational analysis was carried out running Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient (Pearson r) and Partial Correlation. The results showed that a positive relationship existed between students' critical thinking ability and their EFL reading comprehension. Additionally, this study found no statistically significant difference in the correlations between critical thinking and reading comprehension for males and females in the particular context. This study has some implications for EFL learners as well as curriculum developers and EFL instructors to apply critical thinking skills in the class to help make EFL reading more effective and purposeful. پرونده مقاله

Written corrective feedback (WCF) refers to the feedback given by writing instructors and tutors on novice writers’ performances. Although extensive importance has been attached to the implications of WCF for improving writing skill in L2 writing studies, there is a paucity of research into research on whether student writers benefit differently from elaborated and evaluative feedback. Having this in mind, the aim of this research was to examine the effect of teacher’s text-specific and rubber-stamped comments on Iranian EFL learners’ writing ability at intermediate level. Quick Placement Test was employed to select 40 pre-intermediate EFL learners as the participants of this research. Then, they were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Prior to the treatment, the participants of both groups were given a pretest to disclose their initial writing ability. After administering the rubber-stamped comments to the experimental group and text specific to the control group, a posttest was administered to seek the effect of two types of instruments. An independent samples t-test was used to see if the treatment was effective. Paired samples t-test was also employed to determine the amount of progression between pretest and posttest of the experimental group. The results of the study revealed that rubber-stamped comments improved the learners’ writing ability. Implicationally, instructors can use rubber-stamped comments to help learners improve their writing ability. پرونده مقاله