SCET Journal 2020

Prompting

Critical Thinking

“Because I’m Saudi”: Critical Thinking in a Reader Response Class

Ali Alzughaibi

Earlier in 2018, the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia announced that it would implement teaching critical thinking and philosophy in Saudi schools (Al- Fawaz, 2018). Traditionally, classroom teaching prac- tices and reading assessments mostly emphasized memorization as the approach to overall learning and achievement (Al-Seghayer, 2015; Wong, 2016). The full reasons for such a move are beyond the scope of this paper. However, it is worth mentioning that stud- ies reported that Saudi students do not have enough critical thinking skills (Alwehaibi, 2012; Allamnakhrah, 2013). In this paper, the question I wish to answer is: Do findings of the aforementioned studies accurately reflect students’ critical thinking skills? And if Saudi students are pushed to critically think and make con- nections, how will they do it? I started a PhD program in language and literacy in the United States in order to better understand critical thinking within the frame of language teaching and learning. The topic of reader response was broached in one of the first courses I took, and as classes com- menced, reading literature became more engaging simply because I read it differently than I ever did be- fore. I learned that if I am reading a literary piece and do not see myself in it, my understanding and reflec- tion is limited (Rosenblatt, 1995). Moreover, reading became more meaningful than it was before (Ali, 1993). Building on my theory of approaching texts, I would say that reader response has opened my eyes to reading differently. It has made me see how valid my experiences are in bringing the text to life. As reader response cultivates critical thinking (Asselin, 2000; Carlisle, 2000), I assumed there was little research, if any, in Saudi Arabian context that investigated its application and its impact on critical thinking. I found that research on reading investigated Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ use of reading strategies (Alsamadani, 2012; Meniado, 2016; Al Roomy & Alhawsawi, 2019), EFL extensive reading (Al-Homoud & Schmitt, 2009); attitudes to- wards authentic EFL reading materials (Al-Musallam, 2009), but nothing related to reader response. In this study, I shed some light on the application of Rosen- blatt’s reader response theory (1995) and its effects

on critical thinking in a bilingual Saudi English as a second language (ESL) context. From a Saudi Arabian perspective, the study provides insight which shows that participants are able to think critically and make connections to literature across different contexts. Rosenblatt’s Theory in ESL/EFL Contexts The assumption underlying Rosenblatt’s Reader Response theory (1995) is that readers come to the text with their unique backgrounds and experiences to form meaning with the text they are reading (Ali, 1993). Although it does not specifically target ESL/ EFL contexts, research and scholars advocate for its use in these contexts (Harfitt & Chu, 2011). Reader response is applicably and conceptually multidimen- sional, but the focus of this paper is on how readers construct meaning from the text by bringing their experiences to the discussion of the text to give life to the text (Rosenblatt, 1995; Tyson, 2012). Making connections to the story is part of students’ reading comprehension, and it is one of the reading strategies that good readers incorporate while they are reading (Jones & Clarke, 2007). Because Saudi Arabia is a part of the Arab world, Arabic is spoken as the first and official language in the country while English is taught as a foreign lan- guage (Haq & Smadi, 1996). I only reviewed studies that incorporated reader-response in English as a second language/English as a foreign language ESL/ EFL settings. For example, Al-Bulushi (2011) conduct- ed a reader response study with Omani undergradu- ate EFL students. Her participants were divided into control and experimental groups. The control group was taught by school teachers while she taught the experimental group. She found that the experimental group had positive attitudes towards using reader response in the classroom; it helped students develop their imagination skills, their critical thinking skills, and made reading a fun and enjoyable exercise. Similarly, Khatib (2011) found that Iranian undergraduate stu- dents were motivated to read literature and concluded that reader response can help students express their personal connections to the literature without jeopar- dizing their reading comprehension. Chung and Lee

2018/2019

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