1-5-4 Inference. 19 1-6 Significance of the study. 20 1-7 Limitation and Delimitations of the Study. 27 1-8 Assumptions. 27 CHAPTER ΙΙ: Review of the Related Literature 2-1 Introduction. 29 2-2 Thinking. 29 2-2-1 Types of Thinking. 33 2-3 A brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking. 37 2-3-1 What Is Critical Thinking?. 41 2-3-2 Characteristics of the Critical Thinker 46 2-3-3 Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions. 50 2-3-3-1 Inference and Analysis. 57 2-4 Teaching Critical Thinking. 59 2-4-1 How to Teach Critical Thinking. 62 2-5 Advantages of Critical Thinking. 67 2-6 Problems in Teaching Critical Thinking. 70 2-7 Language and Thought 73 2-8 Reading Comprehension. 77 2-8-1 Reading. 79 2-8-2 Comprehension. 81 2-8-3 Nature of Reading. 83 2-9 Theories in Second Language Reading. 84 2-9-1 Process Approach. 84 2-9-2 Schema Theory. 86 2-10 Reading Processing. 88 2-10-1 Bottom-up Processing. 88 2-10-2 Top-down Processing. 89 2-10-3 Interactive Processing. 89 2-11 Reading Comprehension Strategies. 90 2-11-1 How to Teach Reading Comprehension by Inference and Analysis. 92 2-12 Models of Reading. 97 2-12-1 Bottom-up Models. 97 2-12-2 Top-down Models. 98 2-12-3 Interactive Models. 99 2-13 Types of Reading. 100 2-13-1 Intensive Reading. 100 2-13-2 Extensive Reading. 101 2-13-3 Scanning and Skimming Reading. 102 2-13-4 Receptive and reflective Reading. 103 2-14 Critical Reading. 103 2.14.1 Approaches to Critical Reading. 106 2-15 Related Studies on Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension  107 CHAPTER III: Methodology 3-1 Introduction. 113 3-2 Participants. 114 3-3 Instrumentation. 115 3-3-1 PET. 115 3-3-2 Reading Comprehension Pre-Treatment Test 116 3-3-3 Reading Comprehension Post-Test 117 3-3-4 Instructional Materials. 118 3-3-4-1 Course Book. 118 3-3-3-2 Pamphlet 118 3-3-4 Procedure. 118 3-3-6 Data Analysis. 136 CHAPTER IV: Results and Discussion 4-1 Introduction. 138 4-2 Participant Selection. 139 4-2-1 Descriptive Statistics of the Piloting PET Proficiency Test 140 4-2-2 Descriptive Statistics of the PET Proficiency Test 141 4-2-3 Dividing the Participants into Two Groups. 143 4-3 Pre-treatment Test 146 4-4 Post-test 151 4-5 The Results of Testing the Null Hypothesis. 154 4-6 Discussion. 156 CHAPTER V:  Conclusion, Pedagogical Implications 5-1 Introduction. 162 5-2 Summary of the Findings. 162 5-3 Conclusion. 164 5-4 Pedagogical Implications. 165 5-5 Suggestions for Further Research. 168 References. 171