The Effect of Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies on Iranian EFL Pre-University Studentsʹʹ Reading Comprehension Ability

ABSTRACT: The present study investigated the potential of implementing reading strategy instruction in raising learnersʹ reading comprehension ability, extending the range of strategies they employed and enhancing their awareness. To conduct the study, 90 Iranian pre-university female students were selected based on a convenient sampling procedure. To collect the necessary data, three types of instruments were employed, a reading comprehension test, questionnaire and interview. A group of 53 students (experimental) was taught to employ reading comprehension strategies in reading some English texts during a period of 15 sessions while the other group of 37 students (control) was taught reading comprehension traditionally. The findings of the study show that while strategy training appeared to raise studentsʹ awareness of reading strategies and could encourage strategy use by some students, the reading strategy instruction was not able to enhance the studentsʹ reading performance.