Transactional Reading in EFL Learning: A Path to Promote Critical Thinking through Urban Legends

Abstract

This article reports the research methodology and the findings of an action-research study conducted with a group of EFL eleventh graders’ at a public school in Bogotá. The study aimed at helping learners develop critical thinking through the implementation of the Transactional approach to reading. Individual and social transactions during the reading process of several urban legends enabled learners to discuss social conflicts that were also related to their lives, including, for instance, social irresponsibility, violence, drug consumption, and dishonesty. Data analysis from teachers’ observations, students’ opinions in an interview, and artifacts (workshops) completed in a pedagogical intervention show that the students fostered critical thinking. The main findings indicate that they criticized human behaviors, generated solutions to conflicts, and planned and produced new knowledge based on previous information. An equal significant finding is that they became critical learners when they used the foreign language.

Keywords

• critical thinking skills, critical learners, EFL learning, urban legends, transactional approach.