Critical reading-an evaluation of a teaching approach

Reading for research purposes obviously goes beyond basic comprehension and requires the reader to have reasonable confidence in and mastery of a range of critical reading skills. There is a generalized concern about student proficiency in this area. This is a difficult challenge in one's own language and even more so for foreign language students. The students involved in this study are enrolled in a two-part Communications course at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Reading comprises an important part of their endeavours in the programme and developing effective critical reading skills is essential to their success. The purpose of the study is to evaluate an approach to teaching critical reading, employed by the researcher to determine its effectiveness in developing such skills. A control and study group with similar academic profiles were used and a series of reading tests was administered to each group. In addition, interviews and focus group were conducted for qualitative data. Results across groups were then compared. Test results indicate a higher level of successful performance in the class exposed to the reading approach.