وبلاگ

، فعالیت پیش خوانی، دانش آموزان زبان خارجی، توانایی درک مطلب، پیش زمینه.

 

 

 

Abstract

 

 

 

The present study was conducted to compare the learners’ comprehension ability before and after the implementation of a pre-reading activity that is giving a short summary before reading the passage. The research participants consisted of 40 intermediate EFL students studying at Safir language institute in Lahijan, Iran. A test of reading comprehension ability (OPT) was administered of which the scores were used to assign the subjects into 2 homogeneous groups. Both groups had subjects with the same language ability. The 2 subject groups were taught the same reading passages as treatments, with the difference that one group was given a summary before the passages and the other group without any summary before the passages. The research instrument consisted of 16 lesson plans, two reading comprehension tests (used as pre- and post-tests). The experiment of summary giving as a pre-reading activity was carried out for eight weeks totaling 16 periods. The data was analyzed statistically to identify means, standard deviation, and t-value.

 

It was found that after implementation of summary giving as a pre-reading activity the subjects of the experimental group performed better in the post-test. When compared the results of the 2 groups, it was found that the group receiving summary before passage outperformed their counterpart who experienced reading without any preparation.

 

Also it was found that gender has not any notable effect on reading comprehension ability.

 

 

 

Key words:

 

Summary giving, pre-reading activity, EFL students, reading comprehension ability, schema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Content

 

Subject                                                                                                             Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of Figures

 

Subject                                                                                                     page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                      List of Tables

 

Subject                                                                                                             Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                       List of Abbreviations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter One: Introduction

 

 

 

1.0. Introduction

 

Since early 1980s English language has become a widespread international language due to its worldwide political and business importance. English is the formal means of communication in different parts of the world from the North America to the East Asia, and it is the language of modern technology and internet. As a result, teaching English has become a global industry.

 

Consequently, many companies and publishing houses have been trying hard to facilitate the way toward English language learning through printing and producing teaching aids. Different types of technologies have been dedicated to help learners master language with minimum effort and within the shortest time. For example, the smart board has made teaching much easier, and language labs help students master listening and speaking.

 

However, in the case of reading comprehension it is one of the most important tasks of a good teacher to make the students interested and enthusiastic to the subject. In other words, preparation and motivation toward the subject should be created by the teacher. The reason is that students are often reluctant to spend their time for reading a piece of unknown text.

 

Language researchers give a lot of importance to the role of the prior knowledge and its activation for the purpose of comprehending a text better. Kant (1963) claimed that new information, new concepts, new ideas can be meaningful for us only if we can relate the information to something which we already know. The relating of our existing knowledge that is often called schema to the new information can contribute to a better comprehension.

 

Usen (1993) defines a pre-reading strategy as a technique used to encourage students to call upon background knowledge, to foster predictions, and to ascertain the level of knowledge to close the gap between prior knowledge and new information. Shenkman’s (1982) belief that pre-reading strategies that help students connect schemata in their head with the information on the page is an important component of reading instruction.

 

As a reader we have definitely experienced that when we see a text for the first time it may be difficult to us to read and comprehend it, but if our prior knowledge is activated by some pre-reading activities then the text becomes much more clear and comprehensible.

 

There are many students who bear no problem in understanding the words and sentence structure of a paragraph but possess difficulties in interpreting the text. General world knowledge, sociocultural, topics and genre knowledge, together often referred to as schematic knowledge, enable a reader to work with the language of the text in order to interpret its meaning (Hedge, 2008). Pre-reading activities increases learner’s schematic knowledge and motivates them mentally to be involved in reading.

 

Now, in this research, the researcher tries to answer to the question that whether pre-reading activity (here summary giving) which is aimed to activate learners’ prior-knowledge, helps the learners in comprehension of a reading text. This chapter continues with theoretical framework of pre-reading activities; then it takes a look at significance of the study; after that the purpose of the study will be discussed; subsequently, statement of the problem will be dealt with and afterward the research questions and the hypotheses of the study are coming and at last the key terms will be defined.