Enhancing critical thinking skills to improve reading comprehension progress. (c2016)

Abstract

Teaching English for speakers of other languages is a challenging task, and one efficient way to enhance students’ learning of another language is reading. Reading has an excessive influence on the development of language skills and even on learners’ educational successes for decades. Reading is not just decoding sounds; actual reading is to comprehend what you read, to understand the author’s purpose of writing such a selection, who are the audience, what is the main point behind reading a specific text. In order to enhance such kind of reading, students need to have the ability and the skills to think critically. In this study I exposed students who are struggling in reading comprehension to some comprehension skills and strategies to enhance their critical thinking that may affect their reading comprehension progress, and, accordingly their progress in other subject areas. Participants of the study are fifth grade students of high socio-economic background attending one of the well-known schools in Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia. A sample of 50 female students was conveniently selected. From the aforementioned sample, 25 students served as the study group and the others as a control group. A pre and post-test was administered before and after the intervention to both groups; participant observation was conducted, and a questionnaire was filled in by the study group. Results show that the effect of enhancing critical thinking skills on fifth grade students’ reading comprehension progress was positive. It is recommended to conduct the study on different classes, mixed groups, and on a larger scale.