The Effects of dialogic teaching on students’ critical thinking dispositions in reading comprehension

The teaching and learning process becomes more dynamic when it is supported by dialogic teaching pedagogy (DTP). Considering the growing importance of DTP, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of DTP on students’ critical thinking dispositions (CTD) in teaching reading in the Ethiopian EFL context. To this end, a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was used. Ninety-four EFL learners from intact groups of grade six students participated in the study. The sections were randomly assigned as control (n=46) and experimental (n=48) groups. To collect data, the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CTDI) and semi-structured interviews were administered to measure students’ critical thinking disposition levels. The data was analyzed using descriptive (mean, & standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent and paired samples t-tests). The quantitative result was t= -28.48, df=47, and p < 0.001 of CTD. This result indicated that DTP had a significant effect on students’ CTD in teaching reading. The qualitative result also indicated that dialogic teaching created a good opportunity to enhance CTD in teaching reading. Therefore, it is suggested that dialogic teaching pedagogy should be incorporated as an alternative teaching pedagogy in ELT materials.