The Investigation on Critical Thinking Ability of EFL Learner in Reading Poetry

Abstract

One of the most crucial abilities in the fast-paced world of today is critical thinking (CT), and the development of students depends on thus ability. It has additionally been recognized as the cornerstone and a crucial element of literature instruction. Though this is one of those topics that eastern culture as a whole has mostly ignored, especially in the EFL classrooms. Therefore, our goal is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of poetry in fostering critical thinking among students. In this study, poetry as one of the most prominent literary genres has been used and examined as a technique to raise students' critical thinking skills. This literary genre (poetry) has been used in reading comprehension lessons using a poetry program. Through a case study approach, quantitative phase was incorporated into the course that included a cause-and-effect study in order to investigate the effect of using English Poetry for improving Iranian English Learners' critical thinking. Twenty poems were chosen and used in this experiment based on the criteria discussed in the above ‘literary text selection. 160 participants were selected through convenience sampling. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 43. They were all upper-intermediate and advanced students regarding their English proficiency. After the intervention, the students' critical thinking skills (CT) had improved, and they had formed sound critical thinking habits. The results of the study allowed us to draw the conclusion that poetry can be used to help pupils strengthen their critical thinking abilities.