Promoting EFL students’ reading comprehension, grammatical competence, collocational competence and critical thinking disposition via data-driven pedagogical translation.

This study explores the effectiveness of data-driven pedagogical translation (DDPT) in enhancing the grammatical and collocational competence as well as the reading comprehension skills of first-year secondary school EFL students. The study also aimed to promote students’ critical thinking dispositions. The research investigates the role of translation as a pedagogical tool to address the academic challenge of improving language proficiency among students, particularly in Arab countries. While traditionally viewed as a hindrance in language learning, modern studies highlight translation's potential for enhancing cognitive processes by leveraging the mother tongue in a pedagogical context. The research uses a quasi-experimental design with two groups: an experimental group using DDPT and a control group undergoing conventional instruction. Data was collected through pre- and post-tests assessing grammatical, collocational, and reading comprehension skills, as well as a critical thinking disposition scale. The results demonstrate statistically significant improvements in the experimental group's grammatical and collocational competence and inferential reading comprehension. Furthermore, most critical thinking disposition dimensions improved subsequent to the treatment, compared to the control group. This highlights the beneficial role of pedagogical translation in EFL instruction. The study suggests that integrating machine-assisted translation and translation activities into the EFL curriculum can significantly support language acquisition and foster deeper cognitive engagement among students.