A critical reflection on speaking and reading skills: A case study among Iranian ELF learners

The importance of Critical Reflection (CR) has been dramatically increased so far. While some scholars believe that learning is the outcome of CR (Loughran, 1996; Meziraw, 1991; Sibert Daudelin, 1999), there are also some scholars who say that CR is at the center of Anglophone academia, and generally the Asian students find the concept challenging when applying it to written texts in English (Shokouhi; 2016). The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the probable challenges that some EFL Iranian students deal with in reading English texts or speaking upon a subject. In order to accomplish the aim of this case study, three EFL Iranian students were selected through homogeneous sampling who were passing IELTS course. The data were gathered by the use of a semi-structured interview and an open-ended questionnaire. The interview took almost forty-five minutes and candidates were able to express their responses both in English and Persian. The result of this study showed that, lack of English vocabulary and background knowledge which can be called as proficiency, inability in concept mapping or conceptualization, lack of focus on reading when there is a lot of emphasis on memorization, and lack of concentration were the prominent factors for them to have problems while reading texts or speaking upon a subject. The results were discussed inthe ELT context and some pedagogical implications were also suggested.