Reading comprehension strategies to improve 11th graders’ critical thinking skills

Abstract

This Master’s research aims at exploring to what extent the implementation of three reading strategies (predicting, making inferences, and questioning) improve 11th graders’ critical thinking skill in Jesús Villafañe Franco school from Cali, Valle del Cauca. This research was carried out by gathering and analyzing the data from a Pre-Test before the implementation of an 11-session didactic sequence that includes the reading strategies mentioned. Additionally, a Post-Test was applied to know to what extent the students improved their performance in reading comprehension and critical thinking skill. Based on the findings the implementation of reading strategies shows their effectiveness and benefits because they allow increasing the students’ motivation and performance in reading comprehension, helping them to predict and infer information from the text and questioning how to solve problems or argue their position and points of view in regard to the reading topic, improving their so critical thinking skill. Finally, this study highlights the importance of designing a didactic sequence with reading comprehension activities that motivate the students’ participation considering their age, context, and interest.