THE EFFECT OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ON IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills a second or foreign language learner needs to deal with. Second language (L2) reading is probably the most important skill for second and foreign language learners in academic contexts. Furthermore, enabling students to think critically reserves an important place in higher education given the fact that being able to think independently is vital for educational success. Given this, the present study was an attempt to explore the effect of teaching graphic organizers (GOs) on reading comprehension and critical thinking ability of Iranian EFL learners. A sample of 40 female EFL learners within the age range of 14 to 25 were selected through double sampling. The participants were, then, randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. After taking the reading pre-test and critical thinking appraisal form (CTAF), the students in the experimental group were exposed to 7 successive one and half-hour sessions of instruction on the use of GOs. The participants in the control group, however, received conventional instruction. After the treatment, the reading comprehension ability of the participants was assessed through the reading post-test, while the critical thinking ability of the participants was tapped through CTAF. The results of the investigation using the Mann-Whitney U and Pearson correlation showed that a statistically significant difference was found between the reading comprehension performance of the participants who were instructed to use GOs and those who were taught conventional activities. Furthermore, the incorporation of GOs was found to have a significant impact on critical thinking of language learners. By and large, the findings of the study suggest that teaching GOs improves both the reading comprehension and critical thinking skills of Iranian EFL learners.