Enhancing Comprehension and Production of Argumentation through Critical Thinking Awareness-Raising

Abstract

Language pedagogy aims to equip learners with tools to cope critically with the complexity of the language input and rationally evaluate the authenticity of the data. An indispensable part of learning to read and write a foreign language should, hence, develop critical thinking skills that allow interpretation and accurate expression of overt and covert propositions. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the impact of an eleven-session critical thinking (CT) awareness-raising (AR) mingled with an Advanced Writing Course on 50 male and female Iranian postgraduate TEFL students’ reading comprehension and the accuracy, complexity, and organization of their writing of argumentative texts. The participants in two intact classes were randomly assigned as the experimental and control groups. The treatment followed a reading to writing direction with a stronger focus on explicit presentation and practice of reading-embedded argumentation elements and CT skills in the experimental group. The control group, however, started off with the same materials with now CT focus and proceeded to the detailed process-oriented writing phase. Comparison of the groups’ reading and writing post-test scores verified superior performance of the experimental group in reading and writing of argumentative texts and offer pedagogical implications.