Available online at: http://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/ljtp LingTera, 7 (1), 2020, 51-60 https://doi.org/10.21831/lt.v7i1.6445 lingtera.ppsuny@uny.ac.id Improving reading comprehension through the development of critical thinking of students at madrasah aliyah Arif Zaenal Mustopa *, Sugirin Sugirin Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. Jalan Colombo No.1 Karangmalang, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia. * Corresponding Author. E-mail: musthafa_1309@yahoo.co.id Received: 28 August 2015; Revised: 3 October 2020; Accepted: 15 October 2020 Abstract: This research aims to develop the reading comprehension skills in English written texts of Grade XI students of Madrasah Aliyah Al-Ikhlash Cicalengka, Bandung through the development of critical thinking in teaching process. This research was collaborative classroom action research. The subjects were the 11 th grade students of Madrasah Aliyah Al-Ikhlash Cicalengka, Bandung. The data were collected through pretest and posttest, observation, field notes, and interviews. The students were introduced with the concept of critical thinking starting with the concept of position, agreement, disagreement, and argument as well as the categorization of the opinion and fact in the text. Finally the students were asked to do some tasks and give their opinion related to the position of the writer and their background knowledge. The result showed that there was an improvement in teaching processes. In the first cycle, the students’ involvement in classroom activity was improved. There were about 70% of the students who actively involved in the process and it increased in the second cycle. In expressing opinion, the students could actively express their opinion related to the text being discussed both in written and orally. The improvement also occurred in students’ reading comprehension skills score. The result of paired t-test showed that there was significant different in comparison of pretest and both posttests 1 and 2. The result showed that the significant value of 0.000 was smaller than the significant level of 0.05 or 5%. This means that the improvement was significant. The result proved that improving reading comprehension skills could be achieved by developing critical thinking in teaching reading process. Keywords: reading, reading comprehension, critical thinking How to Cite: Mustopa, A., & Sugirin, S. (2020). Improving reading comprehension through the development of critical thinking of students at madrasah aliyah. LingTera, 7(1), 51-60. doi:https://doi.org/10.21831/lt.v7i1.6445 This is an open access article under the CC–BY-SA license. INTRODUCTION Reading is one of the four language skills in mastering a language. Apart from listening, speaking, and writing, reading plays an important role in academic milieu. Alexander (in Elashhab, 2008) states that reading is more important today than it ever was - it is crucial to develop this ability in order for students to succeed in their chosen career, because so much of information is communicated in written form. Therefore, reading is the most fundamental skill a student will ever acquire in school. After conducting preliminary study in MA Al-Ikhlash Cicalengka Bandung, it was found that there were some problems that emerge in the process of teaching reading in the classroom. The problem that occurred and needed an approach to find solution in order to develop teaching and learning process was in the improvement of reading comprehension skills. It could be seen in the classroom activity that there were some parts of teaching process which is needed to improve. In the part of motivation the students seemed to have low motivation in learning English. In addition, the students seemed to find difficulties in understanding an English text that was given by the teacher. This could be seen that when they were asked to read and understand the text individually, most of the students did nothing and only have a little chat with their colleagues while some others opened their dictionary. When the teacher asked them, they said that they find difficulties in understanding the words or vocabulary in the text that they read.