Untangling the web: critical reading of foreign languages students in digital environments

Abstract

This article analyzes how thirteen Spanish students of translation into English critically read an authentic text produced in the British community. Our three objectives are: a) to explore whether learners identify the worldview contained in the text; b) to document and analyze the critical reading strategies and online resources they use to understand the text; c) to describe their perceptions of and attitudes towards their role as critical readers. We use qualitative methods to analyze various types of data: 1) responses to a task of critical reading comprehension and translation of a news article published in a British online newspaper; 2) five semistructured interviews focused on the reading task, and 3) videos of the on-screen activity of five informants. The findings show that most of students fail to critically understand the text and that this is due mainly to the lack of awareness of the socioculturally situated nature of digital texts and the inefficient use of critical reading strategies and online resources.