Unlocking Reading – Developing Reading and Critical Thinking Skills
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22333/ijme.2025.10432Keywords:
critical thinking, reading strategies, EFL, reading skillsAbstract
Critical reading goes beyond surface understanding of a text. It involves readers' interpreting, analysing, questioning, and evaluating texts while recognising assumptions, assessing evidence, and linking ideas to broader academic, cultural, and social contexts. Within various frameworks of critical thinking development, such engagement is vital for constructing meaning and developing analytical, cognitive, and reflective skills necessary for independent interpretation of a narrative. These skills are best cultivated through well-organised reading strategies.
This paper reviews the textbook Unlocking Reading – Developing Reading and Critical Thinking Skills, which aims to improve university students’ critical and analytical reading skills. The textbook is currently being piloted in the Department of English Philology at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU).
It analyses the organisation, content, and teaching implications of the textbook. Additionally, it presents and analyses findings from an electronic survey conducted at TSU among students and teachers using the book during the current academic term, evaluating its effectiveness concerning developing and enhancing critical reading skills and strategies.
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