Abstract
The purposes of this research were to: 1) study whether the use of literature activities improved EFL students’ reading skills and critical thinking skills according to CEFR at C1 level; 2) investigate students’ critical thinking skills in studying a literature course; and 3) examine students’ attitudes towards the use of literature activities in developing reading skills and critical thinking skills. The sample consisted of 47 second-year English major students who were enrolled in the Introduction to Literature Course in the academic year 2020 at a public university in the northern part of Thailand. The instruments included five lesson plans using literature activities to develop reading skills and critical thinking skills, a reading test, a reflective writing task, and a list of semi-structured interview questions. T-test, mean, and standard deviation calculations including content analysis were used for data analysis. This study found that the EFL students’ reading skills and critical thinking skills improved significantly following participation in literature activities based on Reader-Response theory. The EFL students demonstrated average level critical thinking skills and they held positive attitudes towards the use of literature activities for developing reading skills and critical thinking skills.
Highlights
Literature is widely recognised in EFL classrooms as a valuable source of authentic material for language improvement
To examine whether use of literature activities improved the reading skills and critical thinking skills of EFL students according to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) at C1 level
The first research question explored the extent to which the use of literature activities based on Reader-Response theory improved reading skills of EFL students according to CEFR at C1 level
Summary
Literature is widely recognised in EFL classrooms as a valuable source of authentic material for language improvement. It provides a good example of vocabulary use and sentence structure which are both very useful for language learning. In addition to language skill development, studying literature encourages the students to express their ideas and emotions towards the stories they read, when they have to discuss or respond to the important issues embedded in the literary texts (Carrison & Slavit, 2005; Fisher, 2003). Students can develop their critical thinking skills through written and oral discussions about the texts they read (Fisher, 2003; Kaowiwattanakul, 2009). It is necessary for these students to be able to differentiate, analyse, and evaluate the reliability of the received data to avoid manipulation by others
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