Scrutinizing Critical Literacy Pedagogy in the Institutionally Developed Foundation English Textbooks for Thai Undergraduate Students

This paper examines critical literacy pedagogy in two institutionally developed foundation English textbooks used in a public university in Thailand. The study has two main objectives: 1) to investigate the essential features of critical literacy pedagogy within the textbooks, and 2) to assess the extent to which these textbooks promote critical literacy among Thai undergraduate students. Instructional activities in these textbooks were analyzed using a critical literacy pedagogical framework through qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed that these textbooks embodied three essential features of critical literacy pedagogy including engaging, guiding, and expanding students’ thinking pertaining to societal issues and unequal power relations. The intermediate-level English textbook contained more activities that provided greater opportunities for students to critically reflect on social issues compared to the pre-intermediate textbook. This paper highlights the importance of critical literacy in English language courses and offers valuable implications for the development of English language textbooks and materials for Thai undergraduate students.