چكيده
Owing to the importance of critical reading and communicative tasks in language education, the aim of the study was to apply two types of critical reading tasks namely problem-solving task and general-knowledge task. The number of participants needed to conduct the study was about 100 intermediate EFL learners who participated in Nelson homogeneity test to be homogenized. Eighty one female participants whose age was between 14-16 and whose scores were within one SD above or below the mean were selected (8 of which were dismissed) and were divided into three groups namely, problem-solving task group, general- knowledge task group and control group. As a pre-test they took part in TOEFL Junior reading standard test. The first group did the task through problem solving task; However in general-knowledge group learners performed general knowledge task prior to reading. On the other hand learners in the control group were offered traditional reading method during reading process and were supposed to answer the follow-up questions of reading traditional reading method. After ten sessions of treatment the same TOEFL test was conducted and results of reading comprehension test were compared through one-way ANOVA(Analysis of Variance) along with Post-Hoc Scheffe’s Tests to compare the different effects of each task on leaners’ reading comprehension. It was concluded that leaners’ reading comprehension in problem-solving task group and general-knowledge task group enhanced significantly in comparison to the control group. In addition, leaners’ reading comprehension in the problem-solving task group outperformed those in general- knowledge task group. Actually, in order to be successful in academic studies, the need for reading critically is felt much more than the past so based on the result of this study language instructors can apply critical reading tasks in EFL classes to help language learners improve their reading comprehension skills which are highly critical in the world of technology.
