The effect of using a program based on some critical thinking strategies on developing reading reading skills of 1st year English majors at Minia faculty of education

الملخص EN

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of using a critical thinking strategies based program on developing reading skills of first year English majors at the Faculty of Education.

A pre-post control group research design was used to achieve the research objectives.

Sixty students were randomly divided into two groups: the treatment and the non treatment groups.

The treatment group students were trained in a critical thinking strategies based program to enhance their reading and skills.

The content used was based on some selected reading texts.

The non treatment group students were taught the same reading texts through the conventional method of teaching.

Tools of the study included needs assessment questionnaires to determine the sub skills of reading that were most needed by first year English majors and the difficulties they faced when studying the reading course, a training program in reading skills, a pre-post test in Reading comprehension, the English Proficiency Exam for Egypt (EPEE).

Analysis of data obtained by students (using ttest) revealed that the treatment group significantly surpassed the non treatment one in the post performance of the Reading test.

Discussion of these findings, recommendations and suggestions for further research are presented.