Forming pre-service English language teachers’ competence in critical reading through authentic short stories

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of developing critical reading competence and critical thinking skills of pre-service English language teachers by means of interactive teaching on the material of authentic short stories. The phenomenon of critical thinking is considered thoroughly, its definition is given, and its features are described. Critical thinking is defined as the process of using cognitive techniques and strategies with the purpose of skilful and active understanding and evaluation of observations, communication, information, and argumentation that increase the probability of obtaining the desired final result. The critical thinking skills are outlined, as well as the stages of their formation in correlation with the stages of interactive foreign language teaching. The definitions of critical reading and critical reading competence are worked out. It is established that critical reading is a process of reading which presupposes the use of reflection with the purpose of content evaluation and reasonable judgments in relation to it. Critical reading competence is defined as a person’s ability to read authentic texts of various genres with full understanding, analysis, and evaluation of their content; which is based on relevant abilities, skills, knowledge, and communication skills, in order to respond intelligently and adequately to what is read. The potential of using authentic short stories to develop critical reading competence of pre-service English language teachers has been explored. The difficulties of forming critical reading competence on the material of authentic short stories are considered. The methodology of teaching critical reading on the material of authentic short stories to pre-service English language teachers is suggested: the stages of developing critical reading skills are distinguished and described; the strategies and techniques of teaching critical reading on the material of authentic short stories with interactive method are presented.