The Relationship between Critical Thinking and Translation Ability of EFL Undergraduate Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23918/ijsses.v7i3p19Keywords:
Critical Thinking, Saudi Undergraduates, English Translation, Arabic Translation, EFL UndergraduatesAbstract
The present study was an attempt to investigate the critical thinking skills of EFL undergraduate students as well as to examine the relationship between their critical thinking skills and translation performance. The participants were 72 undergraduates majoring in English at King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected by means of Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z and English to Arabic and vice versa translation test. The data were analysed using SPSS. Results revealed that students did not use critical thinking skills sufficiently and the most frequent categories used were Deduction and Induction reasoning, followed by Semantics. The least used were Credibility and Definition. Another finding indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between critical thinking and translation ability. Students with a higher grade in translation scored better on critical thinking test. The results could have implications for EFL teachers to improve learners’ critical thinking skills as part of translation process.
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