The Effects of Teaching Reading Strategies on the Third-Grade High School Students' Reading Comprehension Ability

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of teaching reading strategies on EFL students’ reading comprehension ability. Among various types of reading strategies, those which were developed into the present study were: 1) Identifying inferences in statements, 2) Identifying what referents are referring to in paragraphs, and 3) Inferring unknown vocabulary from context. Three classes of 103 students were randomly selected to take part in this study. One of these classes with 32 students was selected for the pilot study. The other two groups randomly assigned into experimental and control groups took the NELSON Test. The mean and standard deviations were computed. The students whose scores fell in the range of “mean ±1 standard deviation†were selected. Therefore, 31 students in one class and 30 students in the other participated as the subjects of the study. A standardized pre-test was given to the subjects in both groups. The control group was being taught without resorting to any kind of the reading strategies, but the experimental group was taught and being exposed to the reading strategies. After the treatment the subjects were given a post-test. It was very similar to the pre-test, including some reading comprehension questions that were chosen from the standardized tests administered to the Iranian third grade students as a final test. The findings showed that the experimental group being exposed to the chosen reading strategies, showed higher level of performance on post-test than the control group.