Effects of speech content on critical reading of academic articles in collaborative situations

The interest in critical reading has been increasing in recent years as a high-level literacy. Previous studies have shown that discussion promotes critical reading. However, the influence of the content spoken during the interaction on critical reading of academic article has not been studied. This study reexamined whether discussion in pairs is effective for critical reading. The results showed that its effectiveness is limited, and is only important for sharing of perspectives. Additionally, this study examined what kind of speech content affects critical reading in collaborative situations. The results showed that self-references to differences in thinking decreased reading perspectives; however, self-references to commonalities in thinking promoted criticisms. Further, partner’s negative speech limited criticisms.