The Role of Number Head Together (NHT) Technique in Evoking Critical Reading for EFL Preparatory School Students

NHT technique is a technique to involve more students in the review of materials covered in a lesson and to check their understanding of a lesson’s content. As a cooperative learning technique, Number Head Together technique is designed to involve more students’ in reviewing materials covered in a lesson and in checking their understanding of a lesson’s content. This study primarily aims on describing the role of Number Head Together in teaching literature and passages at preparatory schools. Number head together is a simple four-step structure. Its main strengths are in building mastery and in reviewing previously learned information. The current study aims to find out the role of using NHT Technique on EFL preparatory students' critical reading. The population of the present study is 685 students which encompasses all the students in the preparatory schools in Al-Fallujah city. The sample of sixty students have been randomly chosen from the fifth preparatory class in Al-Khanssa school, during the academic year 2023-2024. The two groups are equally divided into, group A represents an experimental group that consists of 30 students who have been taught according to NHT Technique. Group B signifies a control group which also includes 30 students who have been taught according to the conventional method. Both groups have been equalized in such variables as educational level of parents, English scores in preceding year, and the pretest of both groups. Five questions are composed to combine a post-test. The data gathered from the post-test findings have been statistically examined using the formula for the T-test of two independent and paired samples. The results obtained in the current study show that the critical reading of the experimental group has a more positive role in teaching English than that of the control group. The improvement of students' critical reading in learning English language took place for the favor of using NHT Technique. Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, appropriate recommendations and suggestions for future studies are put forward.