The Impact of Teaching Critical Literacy on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension and Critical Awareness: A Freirean Addition to Vygotsky’s ZPD

Journal of English Language Studies

مقاله 8، دوره 1، شماره 2، اردیبهشت 2010، صفحه 143-161   

نویسندگان

Esmaeil Bagheridoust¹؛ Natasha Rajabi Eslami²

¹Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch

²MA in TEFL, Islamic Azad University South Tehran Branch

چکیده

This study sought to investigate the impact of a critical literacy teaching program influenced by a combination of Freire’s critical literacy pedagogy for social justice and the Vygotskyan ZPD on adult EFL learners’ reading comprehension and critical awareness. A number of 60 intermediate EFL learners were chosen 80 students. Once they were assigned to the control and experimental groups, the latter were given a series of textual analysis on texts with alternative endings followed by the opportunity to hold discussions and exchange views on how texts represent issues of gender, social class, race, ethnicity, etc. with the aim of enhancing their critical awareness and simultaneously improving their reading ability. The data analysis which was conducted prior to and following the treatment in both groups demonstrated that the critical literacy package was indeed successful in meeting its objectives, i.e. significant improvement of reading comprehension and critical awareness.

کلیدواژه‌ها

critical literacy؛ Freirian pedagogy؛ Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)؛ reading comprehension؛ critical awareness؛ Critical Reading