Developing Reading Skills through Critical Reading Programme amongst Undergraduate EFL Students in Libya

This paper investigates the lack of critical reading skills amongst undergraduate students in Libya, and produces an innovative Critical Reading Programme which can be used to develop their skills. Relevant literature was reviewed so as to be aware of empirical studies carried out by others. This was to situate a contribution to the field. Thistlethwaite (1990) emphasises the importance of critical reading; Davis (1992) highlights a variety of learning and teaching methods; Yopp (2001) suggests a model for the process involved in reading comprehension. The sample was selected randomly from Sebha University and was divided equally into two groups (control and research). Students in the research group studied the CR Programme which was initially developed by the researches, while the control group participants were taught reading comprehension using a teacher- centred approach and a grammar translation method, which is the dominant pedagogy in Libya. Qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted to analyse the collected data. The findings recognise that critical reading skills are of utmost importance for EFL students. They also reveal that critical reading have close links to EFL students’ competence in reading comprehension. The findings further suggest that the intervention study can help EFL students develop their reading comprehension abilities. The findings are expected to provide the educational policy makers with insights into perception and practices of teaching reading comprehension skills.