Is questioning a catalyst for critical reading among Jordanian EFL learners?

This study examines the potential effect of questioning strategies on Jordanian English as a foreign language ninth-grade students’ critical reading skills. The study uses a quasi-experimental, pre-/post-test design. An experimental group of 85 ninth-grade students from three public schools in Al-Qasr Directorate of Education (Karak, Jordan) was taught through questioning strategies (viz., questioning, self-questioning and a combination of both), and a control group of 19 students was taught per the guidelines of the prescribed Teacher’s Book. Descriptive statistics and analysis of co-variance were used to analyse the students’ scores on the pre- and post-tests. The findings reveal that the experimental group outperformed the control group, as questioning and self-questioning improved students’ critical reading skills, more so for questioning than self-questioning. Keywords: Critical reading, EFL, Jordan, questioning, self-questioning, strategies.