Problem Statement: Critical reading refers to individuals’ thinking aboutwhat they read, assessing what they have read, and using their ownjudgment about what they have read. In order to teach critical readingskills to students, a teacher is expected to have knowledge about textselection, use of appropriate methods, preparation of functional learningand teaching processes, among other qualities; teachers must displaycritical reading skills as well.Purpose of Study: The aim of the study was to determine the critical readinglevels of pre-service teachers of Turkish language as well as Turkishlanguage and literature in terms of several variables in order to makeinferences about pre-service teachers’ potential to develop their students’critical reading skills.Method: The study group, which was selected using the descriptive surveymodel, consisted of a total of 173 students attending Balikesir UniversityNecatibey Faculty of Education. A personal information form and theCritical Reading Achievement Test (CRAT) were used as the datacollection tools. CRAT employs a multiple-choice format, and its KR 20reliability was determined to be .81 and its mean difficulty.64. The datawere analyzed using a t-test and variance analysis1.Findings and Results: The study revealed that pre-service teachers’ havemoderate critical reading skills. In addition, in the analysis examining therelationships of pre-service teachers’ critical reading levels to theirdepartment, a difference emerged in favor of students from the TurkishLanguage and Literature Department. In contrast, the analysis revealedthat the variables of gender, achievement level, number of books readannually, the preferred book types, and the effective use of social mediadid not influence students’ critical reading levels. Conclusions and Recommendations: Critical reading education constitutes an important dimension of language teaching programs that aim to improve comprehension and expression skills. It is important that pre-service teachers have critical reading skills and know how to teach critical reading. Therefore, critical reading practices and ways of teaching this skill should be included in appropriate courses (reading education, special teaching methods, etc.) in both Turkish language as well as Turkish language and literature teaching programs; additionally, these programs should be supported with optional courses such as critical reading and media literacy.Keywords: Critical reading, reading skills, language teaching, literature teaching, pre-service teacher