The objective was to know the level of relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester of the National University of Education; through a quantitative approach and descriptive-correlational design. The sample consisted of 55 students and data were collected using a critical thinking test (with 5 dimensions: argumentation, supposition, deduction, inference and logical thinking); and a reading comprehension test (with literal, inferential and critical levels). The results indicate that there is a relationship between both variables corroborating the research of Yousefi & Mohammadi (2016), Putra (2019), Moreno (2019) and Fernández et al. (2016). It is concluded that there is a relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension in pandemic times in ninth semester English students, National University of Education, 2022.

Keywords: critical thinking, reading comprehension, argumentation, deduction.

ICOVID- 19 has posed unavoidable challenges for the different levels of the Peruvian educational system, such as the closure of many educational institutions, ineffective distance learning modalities, among others. Given this situation, it is urgent to rethink the contents, methodologies and teaching materials, in order to give priority in the training of university students to certain axes or topics so that young people are able to "understand reality, live and act in times of crisis and uncertainty, make decisions at the individual and family level and promote solutions" (ECLAC-UNESCO, 2020, p. 17).

In this context, critical thinking and reading comprehension become more relevant. The former has always been present in human endeavors and, according to Martín & Barrientos (2009), it deserves an interdisciplinary approach (i.e., from the philosophical, psychological, educational and even business disciplines). Salazar (2020), for his part, states that in the exercise of critical thinking activities of questioning and evaluation are carried out to launch a judgment or assume a certain position on an idea or opinion, involving skills such as analysis, evaluation of arguments, inferences, conclusions, also adds that a poor development of critical thinking leads to difficulties in making decisions on local / national / international issues. He also states that this poor development of critical thinking is a result of how little one reads. Facione (2007, cited by Rengifo, 2018) considers that critical thinking is the judgment used to analyze, evaluate and infer (...) and is defined as the ability to analyze facts, evaluate arguments, derive inferences... (p. 26). For Watson & Glaser (1980, cited by Florián, 2014), critical thinking is made up of "attitudes, knowledge and skills such as making valid inferences, recognizing assumptions, reasoning deductively and inductively, evaluating evidence, interpreting and evaluating arguments" (p.42).

Several studies highlight the association between these two variables. For example, Yousefi & Mohammadi (2016); Putra (2019); Fernandez et al. (2016); & Moreno (2019). Similarly, current research highlights the association between the components of critical thinking and reading comprehension. Thus, for example, for Hernández & Rodríguez (2022), the fundamental competencies of critical thinking are argumentation and text comprehension and they recommend learning formal logic "as a tool for the development of critical thinking since it allows a notable improvement in students' reading comprehension and argumentation competencies" (p. 183); strengthening inferential, creative and critical comprehension. Similarly, Fuentes (2018), found that there was correlation between argumentation and reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.512). Mozombite (2022), on the other hand, concluded that there is a very low correlation between inferences and reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.096) as well as between argumentation and the reading comprehension variable (low correlation, Spearman's Rho: 0.321). For Gabbitas (2009) one of the main limitations of critical thinking is the lack of recognition of the underlying assumptions. They (the assumptions or assumptions or presuppositions or assumptions) underlie all theory and practice in any discipline. Therefore, in his research, he proposed a model of critical thinking that involves principles and practices that help the practitioner to recognize and evaluate these assumptions or presuppositions. Also, Torres et al. (2007, p. 37) point out that students' deficiencies in critical thinking cause difficulty in organizing thoughts, difficulty in distinguishing the most important elements of information, as well as lack of criteria for selecting and clarifying it, difficulty in analyzing and synthesizing data, and lack of planning.

There are also studies whose results show that there is no relationship between critical thinking (or one of its components) and reading comprehension. Miranda et al (2021), using Pearson's R statistic, found a negative correlation between deduction and reading comprehension (-.079). Similar results were obtained by Ríos (2019), who in his research with students of a Higher Public Pedagogical Institute on comprehensive reading and critical thinking concluded that there is no relationship between the two variables (Spearman's Rho of 0.154).

Regarding reading comprehension, we have León (2019), who catalogs it as a process through which the meaning of what is read is constructed by the interaction between reader and text. For his part, Velázquez (2019), considers that this variable involves interaction between the textual material with the person reading and that, at a higher level, it involves complex processes. Ardhian, et al. (2020), consider it as a set of reasoning activities that appear as a product of the questions, reflections and abstractions that have been made while reading. With the definitions presented, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a complex process that integrates cognitive skills which allow the construction of meanings through the integration of previous ideas with new ones to interpret and understand what has been mentally extracted from the text. As it is a complex process, one of the great problems that students present, at present, are the difficulties they have to understand written texts and -with this- the limitations of not being able to develop the skills to analyze, criticize and evaluate the arguments present in them. Ponkshe (2013, cited by Anggraini, 2017), states that students with better English text comprehension skills are expected to perform well in academics. Redless (2015, cited by Madrid, 2020), points out the consequences of poor reading comprehension in students: "apart from spelling limitations, they do not know how to write critical texts, they do not have skills for optimal comprehension of academic documents being the latter one of the main causes of dropout in higher education" (p. 162).

In the present research, critical thinking was worked with the following dimensions:

Argumentation: implies providing a series of reasons or evidence to support a conclusion; it does not consist of simply affirming or denying opinions. Arguments are given with the objective of giving support to certain opinions in a reasonable manner.

Assumption: Assumptions, presuppositions or assumptions are those statements, descriptions, events that are accepted as given (i.e., taken for granted).

Deduction: critical thinking skill that allows one to determine whether or not the conclusions drawn from a given piece of information or situation are logical.

Inference: critical thinking skill that enables reasonable conclusions to be drawn, conjectures and hypotheses to be formulated, evidence to be questioned and alternatives to be proposed.

Logical thinking: Thinking that focuses on solving problems using logical concepts and operations. It has a mediated character. It tends to be generalized and abstract (Gonzales, 2008 as cited in Travieso and Hernández, 2017).

Reading comprehension, on the other hand, was worked with the following dimensions:

Literal level: that in which the reader identifies the explicit message present in the text.

Inferential level: requires a high degree of abstraction from the reader because inferences are built through the recognition of associations or relationships, understanding what the author has stated beyond the explicit; it involves adding information from previous experiences, making use of previous knowledge in order to raise new hypotheses or new ideas and integrating everything into a coherent unit.

Critical level: level in which the author makes personal judgments about what he/she has read; accepts or rejects it, but with arguments; evaluates the relevance or irrelevance of the text, discriminating facts from opinions, integrating the reading with his/her own experience.

It was proposed, then, as a fundamental objective, to know the relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension in COVID-19 times in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

The research belongs to the positivist paradigm, with a quantitative approach. The descriptive method was used, which in the words of Hernández et al. (2014) aims to "locate in one or more different variables a group of people or other living beings, objects, situations, contexts, phenomena, communities, etc., and provide their description" (p. 155). The research design was descriptive-correlational in that the association or correlation between the variables was established with a certain degree of error and confidence. The technique used was the survey. In reference to the instruments, two tests were used as instruments: one to measure critical thinking and the other to measure reading comprehension. The first one entitled Critical Thinking Test consists of 20 items distributed in five dimensions with 4 items each: argumentation, assumptions, deductions, inferences and logical thinking (adapted from Assessment Day, 2020). The application time was 30 minutes. The second, Reading Comprehension Test, was adapted from Cambridge (2003) Preliminary English Test 4. This exam, also known as PET, it is international in scope and is administered by Cambridge Assessment English, which is part of the prestigious University of Cambridge, England. PET is an intermediate level exam, designed for students of English who wish to demonstrate their ability to read simple texts and articles, write emails and articles on aspects of everyday life, understand factual information and understand opinions and moods in spoken and written language (Cambridge Assessment English, 2020). The adapted test consisted of 20 items distributed in 3 dimensions: literal (10 items), inferential (5 items) and critical (5 items). The application time was 30 minutes. Both tests were sent to the institutional emails and WhatsApp of the participants that made up the sample, after validation by expert judgment and reliability analysis by KR20 (0.8181 for the Critical thinking test and 0.8754 for the Reading comprehension test).

Population and sample: The population consisted of 80 ninth semester students belonging to the Academic Department of Foreign Languages. The sample was by convenience, non-probabilistic, made up of a total of 55 students distributed by sections as follows: English-French (14), English-Spanish as a foreign language (14), English-Italian (13), English-German (14).

Table 1.
Correlation between critical thinking and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English language learners, National University of Education, 2022.

	Spearman's Rho	Reading Comprehension	Critical Thinking
Reading Comprehension	Correlation Coefficient	1,000	,627
	Sig. (bilateral)	.	,000
Critical thinking	Correlation Coefficient	,627	1,000
	Sig. (bilateral)	,000	.
Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.00 level.

Table 1 shows that there is correlation between critical thinking and reading comprehension being the correlation of 0.627 (moderate positive) according to Spearman's Rho concluding then that there is a significant relationship between both variables in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

Table 2.
Correlation between argumentation and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English language learners, National University of Education, 2022

	Spearman's Rho	Argumentation	Reading Comprehension
Argumentation	Correlation Coefficient	1,000	,561
	Sig. (bilateral)	.	,000
Reading Comprehension	Correlation Coefficient	,561	1,000
	Sig. (bilateral)	,000	.
Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.00 level.

Table 2 shows that there is a correlation between argumentation and reading comprehension, with a correlation of 0.561 (moderate positive) according to Spearman's Rho. This implies that the good development of argumentation will directly and positively influence students' reading comprehension, thus concluding that there is a significant relationship between argumentation and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

Table 3
Correlation between supposition and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English language learners, National University of Education, 2022.

	Spearman's Rho	Reading Comprehension	Supposition
Reading Comprehension	Correlation Coefficient	1,000	,389
	Sig. (bilateral)	.	,062
Supposition	Correlation Coefficient	,389	1,000
	Sig. (bilateral)	,003	.
Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.00 level.

Table 3 shows that there is a correlation between assumptions and reading comprehension, with a correlation of 0.389 (weak positive) according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that the greater the use of assumptions, the higher the reading comprehension levels; concluding that there is a significant relationship between assumption and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

Table 4.
Correlation between deduction and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English language learners, National University of Education, 2022.

	Spearman's Rho	Reading Comprehension	Deduction
Reading Comprehension	Correlation Coefficient	1,000	,386
	Sig. (bilateral)	.	,004
Deduction	Correlation Coefficient	,386	1,000
	Sig. (bilateral)	,004	.
Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.00 level.

Table 4 shows that there is a correlation between deduction and reading comprehension with a correlation of 0.386 (weak positive) according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that the greater the use of deductions, the higher the levels of reading comprehension; concluding that there is a significant relationship between deduction and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

Table 5.
Correlation between inference and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English language learners, National University of Education, 2022.

	Spearman's Rho	Reading Comprehension	Inference
Reading Comprehension	Correlation Coefficient	1,000	,341
	Sig. (bilateral)	.	,011
Inference	Correlation Coefficient	,341	1,000
	Sig. (bilateral)	,011	.
Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.00 level.

Table 5 shows that there is a correlation between inference and reading comprehension with a correlation of 0.341 (weak positive) according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that the greater the use of inferences, the higher the levels of reading comprehension, thus concluding that there is a significant relationship between inference and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

Table 6.
Correlation between logical thinking and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English language learners, National University of Education, 2022.

	Spearman's Rho	Reading Comprehension	Logical thinking
Reading Comprehension	Correlation Coefficient	1,000	,437
	Sig. (bilateral)	.	,001
Logical thinking	Correlation Coefficient	,437	1,000
	Sig. (bilateral)	,001	.
Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.00 level.

Table 6 shows that there is a correlation between logical thinking and reading comprehension with a correlation of 0.437 (weak positive) according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that the greater the use of logical thinking, the higher the levels of reading comprehension; concluding then that there is a significant relationship between logical thinking and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022.

The result obtained shows that there is a relationship between critical thinking and reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.627). This result is similar to the research of Yousefi & Mohammadi (2016), who also concluded that there is a relationship between both variables (Pearson correlation: 0.767). The results of Putra (2019) also indicate that students' critical thinking has a significant influence on reading comprehension. Likewise, Fernández et al. (2016) found in their research that critical thinking skills are directly proportional to reading comprehension. Likewise, Moreno (2019) affirms that there is a direct and significant relationship between both variables, demonstrating that the good development of reading comprehension will be reflected in the capacity for critical thinking. However, Ríos (2019), in his research with students of a Higher Public Pedagogical Institute concluded that there is no relationship between reading comprehension and critical thinking (Spearman's Rho of 0, 154). His result is related to the research of Miranda et al (2021), who concluded that there is no statistically significant relationship between reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

In reference to the argumentation dimension, the result obtained indicates that there is a relationship with reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.561; moderate positive correlation). Similarly, Fuentes (2018), found that there was correlation between argumentation and reading comprehension. However, Ríos (2019) concluded that there is no statistically significant relationship between the critical thinking trait argumentation and reading comprehension (p. 75).

Regarding the relationship between the dimension assumptions (or assumptions or assumptions) and reading comprehension, the result obtained shows that there is a relationship (Spearman's Rho: 0.389). This result corroborates Gabbitas (2009) who stated that one of the main limitations of critical thinking is the lack of recognition of the underlying assumptions. They (the assumptions or presuppositions) underlie all theory and practice, in any discipline. Critical thinking cannot be practiced without the influence of these assumptions, both acknowledged and explicit.

The result obtained indicates that there is a relationship between deduction and reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.386; weak positive correlation). This result differs from that found by Miranda et al. (2021), who using Pearson's R statistic found a negative correlation between the two (-.079).

In reference to the relationship between inference and reading comprehension, the result obtained indicates that there is a relationship (Spearman's Rho: 0.341). This result is similar to that obtained by Fuentes (2018), who found correlation between inferring implicatures and / consequences with reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.447). Also, it corroborates the research conducted by Mozombite (2022), who found a very low correlation (0.096) between reading comprehension and the inference dimension.

The result obtained indicates that there is a relationship between logical thinking and reading comprehension (Spearman's Rho: 0.437; weak positive correlation). This finding corroborates what was stated by Hernández & Rodríguez (2022), who recommend the learning of formal logic by students as a tool for the development of critical thinking, since it allows a notable improvement in reading comprehension and argumentation skills.

There is a correlation between critical thinking and reading comprehension in times of pandemic in ninth semester English students, National University of Education, 2022, with a correlation of 0.627 (moderate positive) according to Spearman's Rho. This leads to infer that the higher the level of critical thinking, the higher the level of reading comprehension.

The Argumentation dimension of critical thinking correlates with reading comprehension in times of pandemic in ninth semester English students, National University of Education, 2022, with a correlation of 0.561 according to Spearman's Rho. This implies that the good development of argumentation will directly and positively influence students' reading comprehension.

The dimension Assumption of critical thinking has correlation with reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022 being the correlation of 0.389 positive weak according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that the greater the use of assumptions, the higher the levels of reading comprehension.

Deduction has correlation with reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022 being the correlation of 0.386 weak positive according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that the greater the use of inferences, the higher the levels of reading comprehension.

Inference has correlation with reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022 being the correlation of 0.341 weak positive according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that inferences directly and positively influence reading comprehension.

Logical Thinking has correlation with reading comprehension in times of pandemic in English students of the ninth semester, National University of Education, 2022 being the correlation of 0.437 weak positive according to Spearman's Rho. This result leads to infer that logical thinking has a positive and direct impact on reading comprehension.