Pedagogy of Possibility for EFL Learners: Principles, Application, and Course Development

This study reports on the development of a reading comprehension course based on Critical Pedagogy principles, and the result of its application on EFL learners' reading comprehension competence, their motivation to read English materials, their democratic attitudes towards their English classrooms, and also their attitudes towards the critical course. The present study is, in fact, a step forward to scrutinize the outcomes of the beginning phases of a dissertation which was intended to develop a tentative model of Critical Pedagogy for English language teaching practice in Iran. Sixty one sophomore students (in two groups) were the participants of the present study. One group was randomly assigned to the control group (n=31) who received instruction based on the conventional method of teaching reading comprehension practiced in most reading comprehension courses in Iran, while the other one made the experimental group (n=30) who received instruction based on the Critical Pedagogy course. Results of the statistical analyses comparing the participants' performance on pre- and post-tests regarding reading comprehension, a questionnaire on motivation, and a democratic attitude questionnaire which were administered before and after the treatment, besides the qualitative data from a semi-structured interview, suggested that despite some problem issues rising while practicing the principles of Critical Pedagogy, the developed course proved to have a significant positive impact on EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability, developing a positive democratic attitude towards their English classroom and also their motivation towards reading English materials. Students’ attitude towards the critical reading comprehension course was also discussed in terms of four emerging themes driven out of the qualitative data analysis. The most important message, however, may be the applicability of Critical Pedagogy principles in Iran, which had been reported by some researchers as impractical.