The Impact of Critical Literacy Instruction on Adult EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This study aimed at unveiling the impact of genre-based critical literacy instruction on adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ reading comprehension. Twenty-three preparatory year students enrolled at a state university in the western part of Turkey volunteered to participate in this quasi-experimental study. The reading section of the Testing of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was administered as the pretests and posttests. Following the pretests, a four-week genre-based reading instruction curriculum was implemented in both groups. In the experimental group, text critiquing activities were incorporated into instruction in addition to code breaking, text participating, and text using activities. In the control group, on the other hand, only code breaking, text participating, and text using activities were involved in the teaching process. At the end of the instruction process, the posttest was administered. The Related-Samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and the Mann-Whitney U Test were used to analyze the data. The results of the study did not show a significant difference in the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental and control groups, which was not in line with the studies that have been previously conducted. This study implies that an extended intervention period is required to reach more definite results. Further research with a larger sampling is needed to examine the efficacy of critical literacy instruction.