Dynamics of an EFL Reading Course with a Critical Literacy Orientation.

Abstract

This study was an attempt to explore how a critical literacy (CL) approach to reading development may contribute to EFL learners' personal development, and what their perceptions of a reading course with a CL orientation are. 25 B.A. freshman English Literature students participated in a reading comprehension course at Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran. Throughout this course, students were encouraged to deal with the passages brought by them in a problem-posing manner through group discussions and reflective journals. To explore changes in their perceptions of themselves, their personal development, and the class dynamics, they wrote two self-assessments and two class assessments at the end of the first month and by the end of the course. As a result of the thematic analysis of 79 journals, a number of themes emerged that illustrate the contributions of the CL approach to learners' development of voice and selfawareness, to name a few.