Exploring Cognitive, Emotional and Psychomotor Processes of Critical Reading Skills: A Comparative Analysis of Fluent and Novice Readers

Critical reading is a vital academic skill that involves carefully engaging with texts to explore the assumptions, arguments, and implications presented by authors. To fully grasp its importance, it is necessary to understand how critical thinking interacts with different dimensions of learning. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a framework, this approach evaluates students’ engagement with texts, ranging from basic recall to advanced cognitive skills, while considering the interplay between cognitive abilities, emotional involvement, and physical actions. Many students struggle with reading comprehension, particularly when reading academic texts in a second language. Consequently, this preliminary study is conducted to investigate how students engage with critical reading by examining their cognitive processes, emotional engagement, and psychomotor skills. A qualitative approach was applied to analyse the reading processes and behaviours of one fluent and one novice reader by using two reading passages with varied levels of complexity. Post-interview semi-structured interviews and observational notes recorded during the sessions were analysed to gain deeper insights into the participants’ experiences, strategies, and perceptions regarding the think-aloud process. The findings, analysed through the lens of Bloom’s Taxonomy across cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, revealed that the fluent reader used more sophisticated strategies, such as analysing, synthesizing, and adapting complex information. In contrast, the novice relied on simpler methods, like repetition and contextual cues, to address comprehension difficulties. These results highlight the need for differentiated teaching strategies so that fluent readers benefit from tasks promoting higher-order thinking, while novice readers require structured support to enhance their analytical abilities.