The effect of shadow reading and collaborative strategic reading on EFL learners’ reading comprehension across two proficiency levels

ABSTRACT

Reading comprehension is a key skill that can influence the learning outcome and further language development. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two types of reading interventions, Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) and Shadow Reading (SHR), on EFL learners’ reading comprehension across two proficiency levels. To this end, the researcher selected three intact elementary classes and three intact intermediate classes and randomly assigned them as one control and two experimental groups at each proficiency level. A pre-test of reading comprehension taken from the reading section of KET, for elementary learners (n = 72), and a pre-test of reading comprehension taken from the reading section of PET, for intermediate learners (n = 72) was administered to assess their initial performance in reading comprehension. Then, the experimental groups recieved one of the intended treatments, SHR or CSR, for ten sessions, while the control group received only regular classroom reading instruction. Finally, the learners were given a post-test of reading comprehension to measure their reading skill. The findings of two-way ANOVA revealed that there was a significant main effect for reading intervention. Moreover, there was neither a significant main effect for proficiency level nor a significant interaction effect of reading intervention and proficiency. The results of Tukey post-hoc test indicated that CSR group surpassed the other two groups and SHR group outperformed the control group. The implications are discussed in terms of the efficacy of CSR and SHR in enhancing EFL learners’ reading comprehension.

KEYWORDS:

• Shadow reading
• collaborative strategic reading
• reading comprehension

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maryam Babapour has Ph.D. in TEFL. Her research intrests are in the area of teaching reading comprehension, collaborative learning and strategy-based instruction. She has published a number of articles in national and international journals.

Saeideh Ahangari is an assistant professor in TEFL at Islamic Azad University/ Tabriz Branch. Her main interests are Task-based language Teaching, CALL and their interface with the issues in language testing. She has published many articles and participated in many national and international conferences.

Touran Ahour is an assistant professor and academic staff member at Islamic Azad University/ Tabriz Branch. She has recieved her PhD degree in TESL from the University Putra Malaysia. She has published several books and articles in international scholarly journals. Her research interests include writing assessment, materials evaluation, reading-writing connection, and ELT issues.