Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.9, No.20, 2018 49 Exploring the Effect of Critical Reading Strategy in Undergraduate Students’ Writing from the Point of View of Instructors in the City University College of Ajman Saada AbdelGawad Khadragy City University College of Ajman. United Arab Emirates. P.O.Box 18484, Ajman, UAE. Abstract This study aims to define the level of exploring the effect of critical reading as a teaching strategy in undergraduate students’ writing skills from the point of view of City University College of Ajman instructors. The article also aims to determine if there are significant differences according to gender, and the years of experience. In order to achieve the goals of this study, two instruments (observation and interview) were assigned to measure the level of exploring critical reading in students writing. The study revealed the following results: the implementation of critical reading technique has a high effect in students’ writing. Also, there are significant differences in exploring critical reading according to the years of experience. Moreover, the results did not show any statistical differences according to the gender. As a result, it is highly recommended that instructors who used to teach such courses should have long experience in the field of critical reading. Keywords: Critical reading, undergraduate students, instructor. 1. Introduction and literature review Reading and writing acquisition became an essential goal for all practioners and students and their societies in the recent decades. Therefore, the effective and productive implementation of knowledge requires clear understanding and interpretation besides keeping high level of accuracy. During the last two decades, there have been urgent needs to improve reading instructions (Mathes & Torgesen 1998). In this study the term “Reading” refers to a wide explanation of analyzing numerous written texts; these texts include both of social and cultural ideas such as where norms, beliefs, and values are constructed. In this regard, reading itself is not evaluated but the way of adaptation, reproduction and usage of reading is the assessed one. After that, a short outline and comments on the way of theorizing the issues about the guidance of practical reading would be provided (du Boulay 1999). Therefore, the article focused on critical reading through producing written texts by undergraduate students in the City University College of Ajman (CUCA). There is another emphasize on the importance of the written productions in university educational outcomes such as exams, written essays, and dissertations which affect students improvement (du Boulay 1999). Also the term of critical reading is essential to be defined and related to people’s attempts to explain the reason of their clarification of one idea better than the other (Wallace & Wray n.d.). Maltepe (2016) defined the Critical reading as students ability to consider and analyze what they read, evaluate what they have read, and implement their own assessment about what they have read. Therefore, teaching critical reading skill to students requires teachers with knowledge about text assortment, use of suitable ways, arrangement of practical learning and teaching processes. Also, teachers must introduce critical reading skills as well. 1.1 The nature of the Reading and content-based teaching approach: Reading is defined and introduced in many studies and it has great interest. Cline, F., Johnstone, C., & King, T. (2006) defined reading as interpreting and realizing written text. Decoding needs interpreting the cods of writing systems into the spoken words they express. Therefore, realizing is introduced by the objectives for reading, the content, the nature of the text, and the readers’ techniques and knowledge. In this regard, there are many presented strategies and ways to teach reading, one of them is content-based teaching which is expressed by many researchers as a valuable method to teach of critical reading and critical thinking as well. LIAW (2007) indicated that content-based approach allows students to improve their language skills and they become more aware about the world they live in. 1.2 Readers’ awareness of self-efficacy Karasakaloglu, Saracaloglu & Yilmaz Ozelci (2012) specified one of the most important aspects supporting critical reading is readers’ awareness of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is presented as one of the main variables with reference to the social cognitive theory. Also, Bandura defined self-efficacy as it is valuable requirement to the configuration of behaviors and is explained as “the decision of a person about the ability of preparing and achieving the tasks which are important to reflect a specific operation profitably” (Bandura, 1986). The concept is introduced as self-efficacy insight, idea or judgment in the books concerning the concept of self-efficacy