The current study has established a strong link between task takers' critical thinking ability and their speaking performances by modelling a devised spoken discourse analysis.
Limited research has been conducted on understanding the construct of critical thinking in language assessment, while L2 speaking ability and critical thinking ability becoming the prime concerns in education. The cultivation of critical thinking ability can be achieved by language training. The study reported here investigates the effect of critical thinking on the construct of integrated speaking tasks. Under the framework of spoken discourse analysis, speech samples of 24 candidates on the TOEFL iBT integrated speaking task were analyzed into two sub-categories, "textualization" and "reproduction of input material units", with correlations and standard multiple regression being employed. Results showed that critical thinking exerted a strong effect on students' performance of an integrated speaking task, providing implications for the assessment of speaking proficiency, the development of integrated speaking task scales, and the teaching and learning of English speaking.
