Table 1 Assessing criteria of CTI proposed by Mohammadi et al. (Characterization and Development of Critically-thinker EFL Readers’ Reading Ability: Asynchronous Webbased Collaborative vs. Question-Answer-Relationship Instructional Approach, under review)

First movement (cognitive skills, judgment, and disposition)

 Cognitive layer (argumentation)

- Reasoning: The level of ability of a reader to understand and analyze expressions related to a theory for providing interpretations and inferencing.

- Relevance: The ability of an individual to understand and analyze the various components of a subject and use them in interpreting and deducing findings.

- Language use: The ability of an individual to discern how the author of a text uses different linguistic structures and patterns and to use them to facilitate comprehension.

- Organization: A text reader’s understanding of how the components of a text are organized in order to understand the connections between the elements of the text and get the author’s meaning.

- Voice: The sub-skill of voice refers to the ability of a text reader in understanding the views and opinions of the author as presented in the text.

Judgement layer

- Buck-passing: The extent to which an individual avoids making decisions and accepting responsibilities and delegating responsibilities and decisions in various matters to others—even in the case of reading a text or seeking answers to text-related questions.

- Vigilance: The accuracy of a text reader in examining all the dimensions and components of a topic that help making a decision.

Disposition layer

- Maturity: The level of awareness and understanding of a text reader of the subject presented in the text and its complexities, as well as accepting the opinion of others away from any prejudice and/or bias.

- Innovativeness: The ability and effort of a text reader in searching and finding the truth and its signs presented in the text.

- Engagement: The ability of a text reader to recognize and use the opportunities provided to present his/her arguments.

Second movement (cognitive skills, judgment, disposition, and action)

 Action layer

- Habitual action: Applying what the reader has learned over time. As a result of practicing, such an action has become an automatic action in him/her and the person performs it without having to spend any time to make a decision.

- Understanding: A person’s ability to understand the topic presented in the text without relating it to or being influenced by other topics.

- Reflection: The mental ability of a text reader in understanding the subject matter and identifying the assumptions associated with it.

- Reflective thinking: Reflective thinking refers to the extent to which any fundamental changes formed in a reader’s beliefs, views, and various personal, social, and cultural aspects of his or her characteristics.

Third movement (cognitive skills, judgment, disposition, action, social cognition and creativity)

 Social cognition layer

- Social competence: A reader’s attitude and perception of his relationship with his environment that is influenced by various factors such as social skills, peer group, his successes and environmental factors.

- Literacy: A set of abilities (i.e. reading, comprehending, recognizing, interpreting, communicating, etc.) in a text reader which affect his/ her understanding of the environmental, cultural and social factors.

- Cultural competence: A set of customs, subcultures, beliefs, values, beliefs, and behaviors of a reader that affect how he or she interacts with his surroundings.

- Extraversion: The degree to which a person is psychologically affected by external and environmental conditions. An extroverted text reader is a person who is capable of uttering his or her opinions, ideas, inferences, and conclusions.

 Creativity layer

- Elaboration: The ability of a reader in paying attention to the details provided, finding their connections, searching for gaps and providing solutions to manage new ideas, paying attention to details in order to identify gaps and also providing solutions.

- Flexibility: The ability of a person to present a variety of ideas and pay attention to different attitudes in examining the presented topic.

- Fluency: The readers’ ability of presenting a wide range of ideas related to a topic.

- Originality: The extent of ability and courage of a person in presenting new, non-repetitive and unusual ideas based on the topic under discussion.