The Bearings of Critical Reading on the Development of Critical Thinking Skills in the EFL Context.

Abstract

Critical thinking skill is one of the must-have skills EFL students should pick up as it holds a plethora of merits for students, both inside and outside the classroom. As a matter of fact, it is said that critical reading helps in promoting critical thinking skills. Coping with this context, the current study aims at determining whether teachers and students are aware of the importance of reading and whether it contributes to developing critical thinking skills. In fact, it is hypothesized in this research that students who adopt critical reading as a habit would improve on their critical thinking skills down the line. In an attempt to test this hypothesis, both quantitative and qualitative methods is opted for; using both a students’ questionnaire and a teachers’ questionnaire in order to investigate the role of critical reading in promoting critical thinking in addition to finding out to which extent both EFL teachers and students are aware of the importance of reading. The students’ questionnaire is distributed to eighty third year EFL students at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Mila, while the teachers’ questionnaire is administered to six teachers teaching at the University of Mila as well. In light of the major findings of this research, it is revealed that EFL students and teachers are mindful of the endless benefits of reading and that critical reading helps in promoting critical thinking skills among EFL students. In closing, the research work proffers a multiplicity of helpful recommendations proposed to both pedagogy and future research for the sake of delving the role of critical reading in enhancing learners' critical thinking skills.