Tür odaklı okuma öğretiminin İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen yetişkinlerin eleştirel okuryazarlık becerilerine etkisi

This study aimed to reveal the impact of genre-based reading instruction on adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' critical literacy skills at tertiary level. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was adopted in the study. The participants (N = 26) were repeat students studying in the School of Foreign Languages (SFL), at a state university. The research involved two phases. The first phase of the study involved a reading comprehension test (the reading section of the Testing of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) test) and an online (app-based) critical thinking test (the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST)) followed by a quasi-experimental treatment process, with a nonequivalent (pretest and posttest) control group design (Creswell, 2014). In the second phase, focus group interviews were conducted to explore participants' perceptions of critical literacy. The groups (i.e., Critical Literacy Group (CLG), Conventional Literacy Group (CoLG), and Web-Based Group (WBG)) that would be instructed critical literacy skills and conventional literacy skills were assigned randomly. After the administration of pretests, a four-week genre-based reading instruction program was implemented. To teach the selected genres (i.e., narrative, descriptive, argumentative, comparison and contrast), twenty-four lesson plans (eight lesson plans with three variations (i.e., CLG, CoLG, and WBG versions) were prepared. Different from the CoLG lesson plans, "text critiquing" activities were also incorporated into instruction in addition to "code breaking, text participating, and text using" activities in the CLG and WBG lesson plans. In the text selection process, a number of parameters, including genres, the conceptual unit (i.e., culture), and participants' language proficiency levels, age, interests, departments, and needs, were taken into account. CLG and CoLG received a 720-minute training on the selected genres and texts. To share the course materials/tasks to be assigned with WBG, Edmodo, "an educational social media site" (Canady, Martin, & Scott, 2018, p. 108) was used. Following the instruction process, posttests were administered. Lastly, focus group interviews were conducted with the CLG participants (N = 8). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 22, was used to analyze the quantitative data. Thematic coding was employed to analyze the qualitative data. The results revealed that a four-week genre-based reading instruction program designed with different foci did not result in a statistically significant change in the reading and critical thinking posttest scores of the study groups. The comparison of the reading and CCTST posttest scores showed that that there was no statistically significant difference among the study groups' posttest scores. With regard to the relationship between participants' reading and critical thinking posttest scores, the results displayed that there was a very weak correlation or almost no association between participants' reading and CCTST posttest scores. Lastly, there was no statistically significant difference between female and male participants' critical literacy skills in any of the study groups. The analysis of the qualitative data revealed positive learner perceptions regarding the instruction of critical literacy skills. To conclude, reading has evolved in today's digital society and "is no longer mainly about extracting information; it is about constructing knowledge, thinking critically and making well-founded judgements" (Schleicher, 2018). Thus, critical literacy should be a core component of the 21st century language teaching curriculum and should be taught with a "programmatic" approach rather than an "instructional" approach (Behar-Horenstein & Niu, 2011) as "critical thinking is not an easily attainable skill" (Batı & Kaplan, 2015, p. 53). Further research with a more ample sampling, an extended educational intervention and a continual instruction period is required to reach clearer and more definite conclusions, for critical reading skills involve interconnected skills (Lestari, 2015). Similar studies should be conducted with a larger sample size and with a highly motivated group of participants who are more proficient in English.