Enhancing Iraqi EFL University Students’ Critical Reading Skills in Analyzing Literary Texts: A Discourse Analysis Study

Abstract

This mixed-methods study investigated the impact of critical reading strategies (CRSs) instruction on 176 Iraqi EFL university students’ literary analysis skills over one academic year. Participants were divided into an experimental group (E.G.) receiving explicit strategy modeling and a control group (C.G.) with traditional instruction. Quantitative data from multiple researcher-designed tests indicated statistically significant enhancements across strategies, with outlining/summarizing, questioning, comparing and contrasting, contextualizing, and evaluating being the most beneficial. The qualitative data collected from the open-ended questions in the pre-and post-tests, as well as interviews, further supported these advancements by highlighting improved evaluation of perspectives and the establishment of meaning. In addition, the E.G. showed significant improvement in using ideational metafunctions in comparison to the C.G. Nevertheless, these difficulties in implementing specific metafunctions on their own suggested a need for more practice. The results, supported by the enhancement in ideational metafunctions, ensure the important role of critical reading in enabling students to analyze texts in literature courses. The study suggests that even with challenges such as vocabulary deficiencies and the limitations of online learning (among many), providing specific reading strategies could help students critically assess literary texts, necessitating additional research to enhance implementation across various curricula. © 2025 – Published by Teaching English Language and Literature Society of Iran.