Critical Thinking and Goal Orientation Among English Language Students

The purpose of the study was to determine the existence of any meaningful relationship between the psychological constructs of goal orientation and critical thinking. The three psychological levels of goal orientation are learning goal orientation, proving dimension of performance goal orientation, and avoiding dimension of performance goal orientation. This investigation has been pursued with the intention of possibly recognizing goal orientation as a related variable to English students’ critical thinking. Critical thinking is a determining factor in language learning and teaching which stresses its significance. The research has been conducted based on a descriptive correlational study in Iran that resulted in the existence of significant positive correlation between the learning goal orientation and critical thinking, and significant negative correlation between performance goal orientation and critical thinking.