The Relationship Between English Proficiency and Logical Thinking Ability, and the Influence of Native Language Differences on Logical Thinking: A Study Based on the Results of an International Survey

Abstract

Since 2013, our research team has been conducting tests and analyzing the results on English proficiency, logical thinking, and critical attitudes to junior high school, high school, and university students in Japan.

This paper will first present an analysis of the data we have collected. Our findings indicate that among the four components of logical thinking cognitive processes based on Bloom's Taxonomy (analytical ability, evaluation ability, reasoning ability, and expressive ability), students with higher analytical, evaluation, and expressive abilities—particularly the latter two—are positively correlated with higher English proficiency.

Next, the paper will introduce the results of our newly conducted survey and address new issues that have arisen. In 2023, we expanded our survey to include students whose native language is not Japanese to see if the same trends would emerge. During this process, two issues were identified: 1) whether the logicality of Japanese is the same as that of English, and 2) whether logicality varies across different languages.