The Development of Grade 8 Students’ English Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking Abilities Using the Open Approach with Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition Technique

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to develop English reading comprehension ability and critical thinking ability of grade 8 students using the Open Approach with Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition Technique, which the students had average scores at least 70 percent, and there was the number of students passing the criteria of 70 percent over. The target group included 30 Grade 8 students of Loei Sawang Wittayakhom School, under The Secondary Educational Service Area Office 19, Semester 1, and academic year 2016. The research instruments were 9 lesson plans using the Open Approach with Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition Technique for 18 hour, English reading comprehension ability test in multiple choices for 40 items, and critical thinking ability test in multiple choices for 40 items. Data analysis was analyzed by fundamental statistics included  mean ( ), standard deviation (S.D.), percentage (%), and content analysis. The findings were found that: The students had average scores of English reading comprehension ability for 29.33, accounted for 73.33 percent and there were 24 students passing the criteria accounting for 80.00 percent, which was higher than defined criteria. And the students had average scores of critical thinking ability for 28.57, accounted for 71.42 percent and there were 22 students passing the criteria accounting for 73.33 percent, which was higher than defined criteria.