Developing Students' Critical Thinking Skills through Reading Literacy

Abstract

This study aims to describe the development of students' critical thinking skills through reading literacy in Indonesian language learning. The study used a qualitative descriptive method because it focuses on the process of students understanding, interpreting, evaluating, concluding, and responding to texts. The object of this study is students' reading literacy activities in Indonesian language learning, specifically in the use of expository texts, argumentative texts, news, editorials, and popular scientific articles. Research data were obtained through observations of learning activities, students' written responses, discussion results, and learning documentation. The instruments used included observation sheets, student response analysis guidelines, and documentation of student work results. Data were analyzed through the stages of data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study indicate that reading literacy plays a role in developing students' critical thinking skills through several stages. First, students are able to understand texts by finding main ideas and important information. Second, students are able to interpret explicit and implicit meanings. Third, students are able to evaluate information by distinguishing facts and opinions and assessing the strength of arguments. Fourth, students are able to draw conclusions and provide critical responses based on reasons and evidence from the text. Thus, reading literacy can be an effective learning strategy to develop students' critical thinking skills in Indonesian language learning.