The Impact of Integrating Critical Discourse Analysis on EFL Students’ Interpretive Skills in Reading Classes The case study of first-year EFL students at Khenchela University
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Date
2024
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University of ‘Abbes Laghrour’ Khenchela
Abstract
Abstract
This dissertation aspires to investigate the impact of integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on students’ interpretive skills in reading classes. Despite the fact that reading is a process that demands an urgent use of students’ cognitive and interpretive abilities, teachers in EFL classes still rely on traditional approaches and practices. These traditional methods do not enable students to analyze language or to establish a link between the writers’ linguistic choices and the corresponding social and cultural background. In this regard, a quantitative approach by means of a quasi-experimental research design was conducted to ascertain the impact of CDA on students’ interpretive skills. A sample of 40 first-year students at the Department of English at Khenchela University was divided equally into an experimental group and a control group. The experiment involved applying a pretest, a treatment for the experimental group, and a posttest. The results obtained from the paired sample t-test and the independent sample t-test revealed that EFL students faced significant challenges in interpreting language beyond the surface level. The findings also indicated that integrating CDA in reading classes would enhance students’ interpretive skills and enable them to critically approach reading materials. This particular approach would augment students’ interpretive skills and provide them with a higher level of criticality when dealing with reading materials. The study underscores the importance of adopting an innovative method in reading classes to foster deeper analytical and interpretive abilities among students, thereby improving their overall proficiency in the language.
Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, teaching reading, reading skills, interpretive skills, critical reading