EFL students’ attitudes and practices of close reading strategies for monitoring comprehension and promoting critical thinking : a case of two first-year groups at Oum-el-Bouaghi University

Abstract EN

This study examines tertiary EFL students’ attitudes towards practicing close reading of complex informational and literary texts and purports to answer two questions: what are tertiary EFL students’ attitudes towards close reading of complex texts? And how effectively do they practice close reading strategies to monitor comprehension and promote critical thinking? To this end, a questionnaire has been administered to collect pertinent data from two first-year EFL groups at Oum-El-Bouaghi University.

Findings reveal that respondents resort to rereading and annotation techniques in preference to raising text-based questions and engaging in group discussions; whereas, their comprehension-repair strategies show some spontaneous close reading practices despite being unfamiliar with this concept.

However, their strategies tend to lack firm metacognitive skills involved in higher-order thinking.

This problem, which has resulted from inadequate reading instructions and scant independent reading in their schooling years, has led to repercussions on students’ readiness for university reading.