Exploring the Correlation Between Higher-Order Thinking Skills, Reading Strategies, and Reading Literacy Among EFL Students in the Digital 4.0 Era

This study aims to explore the correlation between reading strategies, higher-order thinking, and reading literacy of EFL students in this Digital Era 4.0 at UKI Paulus Makassar among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in the Digital 4.0 era, with a focus on students in the Accounting program at UKI Paulus Makassar. Using a quantitative research design, this study examines the relationship between reading strategies and HOTS through a correlational approach. The results show that the use of HOTS significantly influences students' reading literacy, with a t-value of 2.164 and a significance value of 0.000, which is less than the 0.05 threshold. In contrast, the use of reading strategies did not significantly affect reading literacy, with a t-value of 0.352 and a significance value of 0.726. The study also found a positive correlation between HOTS and reading strategies (r = 0.682, p < 0.01), as well as between HOTS and reading literacy (r = 0.432, p < 0.05). These findings emphasize the importance of integrating HOTS in reading instruction to enhance students' literacy skills, and highlight the need for incorporating educational technology to support more effective HOTS development and reading strategies. The study recommends further development of HOTS-based teaching materials and the continued use of technology to improve educational quality in the digital age.