The Effect of Critical Cultural Awareness-Raising Practicum on Iranian Undergraduate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Cultural studies in education have recently an emphasis on communication across various cultures in a rapidly globalizing world. Exposing cultural texts and designing practices such as critical cultural awareness rising by teachers aimed at a sustainable communication for learners, rather, garnered attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of critical cultural awareness raising on increasing the learners’ reading comprehension among Iranian EFL learners at higher education level. The researchers viewed the study through the lens of Critical Pedagogy which challenges traditional educational practices.The methodology used was quantitative and the data collected from 50 students at university level in the form of pretest and posttest adapted from SAT passage test (Scholastic Assessment Test) and CAAP (Collegiate assessment of Academic Proficiency) which were statistically analyzed. To do so, firstly a pre-test was held for both control and experimental group. Secondly, the students of both groups were given some passages included in Cover to Cover textbook written by Richard, R and Centon Harsch (2004) for 10 sessions. The participants in experimental group tried to uncover some information on the topics and then to discuss it in the class, while those in the control group did not work on critical cultural information of the selected sample texts. Finally, the researcher gives the same test as a post-test to both groups. The findings indicated that students in the experimental group outperformed the ones in control group in posttest. Critical cultural awareness raising as a teaching practicum may encourage the EFL learners, even those learners in schooling systems who are in the initial phases of being critical, to understand the text well. Pedagogical implications were also discussed

Keywords:

Critical Cultural Awareness , Reading Comprehension , EFL Learners