• 16+
  • English
  • Русский
  •   Facebook
 Education and Self Development
  Menu
Skip to content
  • Home
  • Current volume
  • Archive
  • Scope Statement
  • Editorial Team
    • Editors
    • Editorial Council
    • Editorial Board
  • Ethical Policy
  • News
  • For Reviewers
  • Submit an Article

Incorporating Mindfulness into EFL Literature Courses to Foster Critical Reading

  Download PDF
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.26907/esd15.4.06
  Volume Number: 15 | Issue Number: 4 | Pages: 21 - 31
  Published: December 2020
  Article Keyword(s): critical reading, mindfulness, reading comprehension
  Article Author(s) - listed alphabetically: Mahmoud Azizi, Roman Kralik
  Bookmark the permalink

Recently, educators are becoming interested in exploring the use of mindfulness-based approaches
to learning and teaching a foreign language. Through these approaches they tend to reduce stress
(for teachers and students alike), enhance and improve classroom atmosphere, and help students
to focus their attention, and even think more clearly (Tregenza, 2008; Yager, 2009; Collins et al.,
2011). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of mindfulness techniques on
the development of critical reading abilities of EFL learners in literature courses. Although much
research has been conducted in the realm of mindfulness and positive effects are reported on stress
reduction, relaxed environment, and so forth, research on the role of mindfulness in students'
critical reading performance is scarce. To this end, a quasi-experimental study was undertaken
with the participation of 35 BA students (both male and female) majoring in English language
and literature. The participants were divided into two groups of mindful and less mindful students
based on their scores on Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Data were collected while
students were engaged in some mindfulness techniques before they performed different forms of
critical reading activities. A critical reading test was used as pre and posttest to investigate the gain
in critical reading ability, if any, after the treatment. Paired-samples T-test through SPSS software
was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the
mean scores of pre-test and post-test of all the participants. However, since both meditative and
socio-cognitive mindfulness practice was utilized in this study, further research is required to shed
light on the nature of mindfulness in some new ways and explore the differential effects of these
two approaches. Overall, the findings of this study will be beneficial for teachers to be aware of
some mindfulness techniques and use them in their classes in order to give students the opportunity
of learning in a more relaxed and focused environment.

Further Reading

  Exploring Teachers’ and Learners’ Attitude towards Homework: The case of English versus Non-English-Major Teachers’ Homework Practices
Development of abilities begins from reflection-for-action  

Search Site

Journal Information

Publisher

Education and Self Development (E&SD) is published by Kazan Federal University (KFU)
See http://kpfu.ru/eng

Contact

"Education and Self Development"
Office 59, 1 Mezhlauk Street
Kazan 420021
Russia Federation

  +7 (843) 221 3475
  +7 (917) 904 9885
  samorazvitie@mail.ru

ISSN

ISSN 1991-7740

Frequency of Publication

E&SD publishes four print issues each year. It was established in June 2006

Impact Factor and Ranking

The Journal has been accepted for inclusion in Scopus and is applying for inclusion in Web of Science. At present it has not established an impact factor or ranking but these will be forthcoming.

Open Access

E&SD is an online, open access journal fully funded by Kazan Federal University. The Journal is a signatory to the Budapest Open Access Initiative and is committed to ensuring that all of the articles we publish are freely available. Articles are available to all without charge, and there are no article processing charges (APCs) for authors.

Scope Statement

Available here…

Article Keywords

competence competence approach creativity critical thinking didactics e-learning education educational innovations educational process educational standard educational technology evaluation feedback future teachers higher education inclusive education model motivation multicultural education pedagogy personality problem-based learning professional competence professional development professional orientation quality quality of education reading comprehension reflection self-assessment self-development social networks strategy structure students subjectivity teacher teacher education teachers teacher training technology training uncertainty university upbringing

Article Authors

Agzam A. Valeev Albina R. Drozdikova-Zaripova Alena Hašková Anastasia O. Luchinina Andreja Istenic Starcic Andreja Istenič Anna I. Akhmetzyanova Anna Kobtseva Aydar Minimansurovich Kalimullin Branka Radulović Colin Latchem Elena Ibragimova Elina B. Khobotova Evsyukova E.A. Fatemeh Khonamri Galina I. Simonova Hai-Yan Nie Ian Menter Idiyatov I.E. Ilshat R. Gafurov Inna V. Hraivoronska Inna V. Krotova Iuliia S. Kaliuzhna Kadriya Shakirova Liliana Shakirova Lira V. Artishcheva Mahmoud Azizi Martina Pavlikova Maryna I. Ihnatenko Milausha V. Gabdulkhakova Mourat Tchoshanov Natalya N. Kalatskaya Nick Rushby Olga F. Shikhova Olga G. Smolyaninova Olga K. Evdokimova Roza A. Valeeva Rushby N.J Valerian Faritovich Gabdulchakov Veronika B. Veretennikova Vsevolod V. Andreev Yu Cheng Shen Yulia Yu. Vlasova Yuri A. Shikhov Zdenka Gadušová

Join Our Mailing List

Sign up to receive news about E&SD

Click here (opens in new window)

© 2022 Education and Self Development | All Rights Reserved

Bespoke WordPress development by Philip K Meadows