EFL teachers' critical reading conceptualization and their practices to improve university preparatory students' critical reading skills

This qualitative study aims to investigate (a) how in-service EFL teachers conceptualize critical reading, and (b) what they do in class to improve critical reading skills of the preparatory school students at the tertiary level. The data was first gathered from 20 teachers through an open-ended questionnaire developed for the purpose of finding their conceptualizations of critical reading within the context of a state university. Next, three of these teachers were selected to observe 9 hours in their reading-writing classes to see to what extent they integrated critical reading activities into their teachings based on their conceptualization. The results of the content analysis revealed that Turkish EFL teachers conceptualized critical reading under themes identified as analysis, evaluation, explanation, inference, interpretation, selfregulation, background knowledge to provide sound basis for judgment, differentiate fact from opinion, recognizing bias, and selective attention. Some of these themes were found to be in line with the critical thinking categories identified by Facione (2013). Moreover, the observation data revealed that teachers did a variety of activities to promote critical reading skills of their students. The study discusses these findings to draw invaluable implications both for in-service teachers and pre-service teachers in the initial teacher education programs. Key Words: Critical reading, In-service EFL teachers