Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Zuzana Šaffková
comment metacognitively, showing awareness of the cognitive strategies they make use of, but also
metacritically” (2003, pp.42-43). This means that the readers examine their personal responses and
attitudes to the text, keeping a certain ´critical distance´ on their interpretations. An opportunity for the
students to reflect on and assess their own learning procedures and results helps them become more
aware of the strategies they use and how to modify them.
3. Building critical reading through blended learning
In order to develop EFL undergraduate students´ critical literacy skills at a required level, it is
necessary to offer the students more than just basic literacy skills but encourage them to become
critical consumers of the information through multiple modes of learning. One way to achieve this is
through extending a conventional EFL reading classroom by an on-line environment. This mode of
blended learning that combines face-to-face and on-line learning “has enormous potential to
transform the nature of the educational experience with the use of direct and mediated
communication and the rethinking of educational approach” (Garrison and Vaughan, 2008). First of
all, e-learning enables interaction with content, with instructor and with classmates, and thus it is an
opportunity for students´ active participation, sound responses and in-depth reflection (Stephenson,
2002; Bonk and Graham, 2006). Interactivity also encourages students to become actively engaged
with what they are reading. Engaged readers are then intrinsically motivated and thus want to
understand the text, enjoy their work and have confidence in their reading abilities. Moreover, since
the students can monitor their own learning by monitoring their responses to exercises, pace and
timing, overall direction and assessment of performance, they are gradually encouraged to read
independently yet under a highly structured support. Next, a variety of tasks that computer mediated
instruction offers makes the learning formats more explicit for the students, which creates a kind of
security and increases the students´ achievement in reading. As Grabe confirms, “explicit L2 reading
instruction is necessary and important” (2009, p.150). On-line environment also suits diverse learners
with different learning preferences, expectations, experiences and cultural backgrounds, by providing
specialized instruction (Kamil, Manning and Walberg, 2002). Finally, since students are more involved
in learning by the necessity to integrate knowledge into practice, for which they have to consider
choices and alternatives and reflect on their action, it can be assumed that online learners tend to
obtain skills that correspond to the ability to think critically.
4. The project
Objectives of the investigation:
The above mentioned findings from literature demonstrate the scope of investigation out of which
three important issues arise in connection with developing first-year EFL university students´ critical
reading skills: the students´ reading experience, their L2 proficiency, and the delivery of reading
instruction. The main goal of the investigation was to diagnose the students´ common insufficiencies
in employing their critical reading skills and through a supportive framework to help them gradually
build their reading competence. To optimize the students learning, scaffolded instruction „enabling
students to develop, move to the ´next step´ level; never doing for them anything they are capable of
doing for themselves with a little support“ (Nuttall, 2005, 36) was used. Specifically, the investigation
tried to answer the following questions:
Is scaffolded instruction effective for building reading competence?
Can blended learning become an effective environment for gradual assistance and support for
building the students´ reading competence?
What further adjustments of the course should be made and what further measures in research
will have to be addressed?
Subjects:
The students in the first year of the Bachelor's degree program study two major subjects, one of which
is the English language. In the winter semester of 2010, 112 students registered for the Introduction to
Study Skills course. The course aims at three interconnected areas of skills that enable students to
experience and develop learning and academic skills appropriate for successful tertiary study. First of
all, the course helps students gain skills in study and time management strategies, then it also
focuses on the development of writing skills, and finally, it provides the students specifically with the
opportunity to experience and build academic reading skills. As the students start working on Moodle
from the beginning of their studies in different courses, they are already familiar with this platform.
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