A PROPOSED PROGRAM FOR DEVELOPING SPCCD AND COMPREHENSION I SILENT READING AMONG ENGLISH DEPBARTMENT STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ADUCATION

Abstract

The: ultimate objective or this researl:h was to study the effectiveness of a proposed schema-based program in developing rcadi11g eon1preht:11Sion and rt:ading spet:d oJ' EFL students at the Faculty of Education. For this purpose, 60 third-year EFL students were randomly selected and assigned to a treatment group (N = 30) and a no­ treatment group (N = 30). Students in the treatment group were taught the proposed program while students in the no-treatment grqup only participated in pre-posttesting. The program consisted of three units. Each unit consisted offour sessions focusing on a schema-based reading strategy. In the first unit, students were taught to recognize and use text top-level structures as well as to make linguistic predictions (the structure strategy). In the second unit, they were taught to make content predictions employing background knowledge and experience (the prediction strategy). In the third unit, they were taught to approach reading with prequestions formulated on basis of background knowledge and experience (The prequestioning strategy). The t-test was performed on subjects' scores on the reading comprehension and reading speed posttests to investigate the differences between the two groups on overall comprehension, literal comprehension, critical comprehension, and reading speed. Results revealed significant differences between the two groups on all measures of comprehension and reading speed in favour of the treatment group. Thus, the proposed program proved effective in developing EFL students' reading cqmprehension and reading speed.