Developing critical literacy practices of tertiary learners in the ESL classroom

A major concern is that students are not critical when they read in school and this practice is carried to university. Tertiary reading necessitates students read more than one text and then synthesize the information before presenting their understanding of a topic either in a written or oral form. This means they have to effectively interact with the text and construct meaning based on their knowledge and students struggle to do this. This paper will show how students can be guided to develop critical perspectives and a better understanding of how texts position and even marginalize readers. Using a case study method data comprised observation notes, student assignments and student reflections. The findings highlight that students can move beyond passively accepting the text’s message to understand ideologies, injustices and power struggles which shape texts. This shift is further evident when students become text producers at the end of the fourteen weeks.