A Program Based on Critical Reading Strategies for Improving the Content-Area EFL Reading Comprehension Skills of the Mass-Media Students at the Faculty of Specific Education

The current study has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of a program based on critical reading strategies for improving the content-area EFL reading comprehension skills of mass-media students at the Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University. A quasi- experimental research design was adopted in the study . Sixty-six students enrolled in the third  year mass-media students at the Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University, Egypt, during the first semester of the  academic year  (2024-2025) were randomly selected to be the participants of the study. They were assigned equally to two groups: Treatment group of (33) students and a control group of (33) students. The experimental group was taught through the program based on critical reading strategies , whereas the non-treatment group received regular instruction.  Data were collected through the content- area EFL reading comprehension skills pre-posttest. The results of the study revealed that: a) the students in the treatment group outperformed the non-treatment ones in the post- administration of the content- area EFL reading comprehension skills pre-posttest; b) the effect size of the program was found to be high. Findings of the study indicated that using a program based on critical reading strategies had a positive effect on  the content- area of third year mass-media students' EFL reading comprehensions skills.