Introduction

Reading literature in the foreign language may be seen as dialogic interaction between reader and text as well as between two cultures – the target culture and the students’ culture – within the foreign classroom situation. Due to its dialogic nature, literature corresponds with the need to mediate meanings and interpretations, to establish an exchange of ideas – a dialogue – which lends itself well to the task of raising learners’ critical awareness. In Bakhtin's words, dialogue may be defined as follows: “To live means to participate in dialogue: to ask questions, to heed, to respond, to agree, and so forth” (Bakhtin, 1984: 293). It is this type of dialogue that is required in the foreign language classroom if critical reading skills are to be developed.

The present article will first discuss the essence of critical reading through the perspective of dialogic interaction, offering a checklist of critical reading strategies. Secondly, the results of a questionnaire study as well as coursebook evaluation will be analysed about the role of critical reading in foreign language instruction as seen by Estonian teachers of English at upper-secondary school level. Finally, the article offers an inventory of activities that may be employed to enhance critical reading in a foreign language classroom in upper-secondary education.

The essence of critical reading in a foreign language classroom

In foreign language learning (FLL), reading is frequently used for study purposes in order to broaden students’ knowledge of the target language as well as their cultural understanding of the target language community.