Comparison of Critical Thinking in Students Interested and Uninterested in Learning a Second Language

The main objective of this study is to identify the impact of critical thinking on students interested and uninterested in learning a second language. The population consists of 2875 high school students in the city of Tehran. The sample includes 385 high school students selected through simple random sampling and the study follows a causal-comparative design. The student's age ranges from 14 to 18 years old who had at least learned one language as a second language (English). The instruments used in this study were: 1. Questionnaire on the level of interest in learning a second language 2. Critical Thinking Disposition questionnaire. The data were analyzed by the SPSS software by using the comparisons of independent sample t-test and within subjects Anova. The results showed that students interested learning a second language have higher levels critical thinking than students uninterested in learning a second language, and female students have higher levels critical thinking than male students. Index Terms--critical thinking, interest, second language learning, motivation