Effect of Reading Poetry on Fostering EFL Learners’ Critical Thinking

This study aimed to investigate how poetry, a popular literary genre, might improve students’ critical thinking. Poetry has been used in reading comprehension classes to assess students' critical thinking. A poetry program was, thus, considered to engage students' attention to CT to replace their critical thinking skills. A quantitative element was added to the course using a case study approach to evaluate how English poetry affects Iranian English learners' critical thinking. This phase comprised a cause-and-effect research. Twenty poems were chosen using the "literary text selection" criteria. Convenience sampling selected 160 people. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 43. All were upper-intermediate or advanced English learners. The intervention improved the student's critical thinking skills (CT) and helped them develop good CT practices, according to case study data. Poetry-based teaching strategies boosted study participants' ability to critically examine class contents and express their opinions. We concluded from the study that poetry can improve pupils' critical thinking.