A suggested syllabus for critical reading and writing course and its effectiveness

The aim of the study was to improve the learners' critical reading and writing skills because one of the needs of the 21st century was to improve learners' critical stance towards reading and writing skills. Hence, this study suggested a syllabus for the Critical Reading and Writing course for 57 sophomores pre-service EFL teachers at the department of English language teaching at Gaziantep University and the research investigated its effectiveness. The syllabus was arranged according to the results of needs analysis gathered from the lecturers of Reading Skill and Writing Skill Course from the previous year. Accordingly, the basic terms of critical reading skills were reinforced through reading activities in the current study. This study compared critical reading scores collected through Questionnaire on Critical Thinking Ability in English Reading which included 6 sub-categories such as explanation, evaluation, inference, analysis, interpretation, and self-regulation. As regards to critical writing, argumentative essay scores obtained from the learners were analyzed. One-group pretest-posttest design, one of the quasi-experimental research designs, was used since there was an experimental group consisted of 57 students. Data were collected through pre and post-tests and analyzed by using paired-samples t-test. The result of the current study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the pre and post-test of critical reading and writing (p <.01). Consequently, it could be concluded that the suggested syllabus improved students' critical reading and writing skills. Accordingly, some suggestions were recommended for further studies. Keywords: Critical reading, critical writing, argumentative essay, and syllabus design