Cultivating critical thinking skills is an important objective in global foreign language instruction and traditional English reading teaching pays attention to the decoding of language and rote memorization of knowledge，and pays less attention to the cultivation of higher-level thinking. This paper is an instructional intervention that includes instructing the English reading class to think critically. Quasi-experimental design，the research involved two intact class of university sophomore，experimental and control group over 16 weeks. The experimental group engaged in a hierarchy of critical thinking and inquiry-based methods，while the control group followed traditional grammar-translation methods. I use：California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory（CCTDI），customized English Reading Proficiency Test and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative results showed that the experimental group's critical thinking dispositions（especially analyticity and inquisitiveness）and reading comprehension improved significantly，whereas the control group showed no notable changes Qualitatively students reported more engagement and changed from passive to active. The findings suggest that integrating critical thinking into reading instruction not only enhances cognitive processes and language acquisition but also promotes pedagogical innovation in EFL classrooms.