IS THERE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TASK-BASED ACTIVITIES AND READING COMPREHENSION OF IRANIAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS?

This study aimed at examining the influence of task-based activities (four specific types of tasks: matching, form-filling, labeling, and selecting) on reading ability in students of English as a foreign language and to identify if there was any correspondence between task type and studentsʹ Listening Proficiency level. Ninety senior EFL learners of Chamran high school in Andimeshk, Iran participated in this study. The sources of data for this quasi-experimental study included two task-based tests of reading comprehension and a test of language proficiency. Analysis of the findings indicated that there was a significant relationship between the three tasks of "matching, labeling, and form-filling" on the one hand and reading comprehension on the other. However, no such relationship was observed between the task of "selecting" and reading comprehension. Moreover, the results of the participantsʹ performance on each task at each level of language proficiency showed that among the four tasks of the study only the "selecting" task did not correspond with the three levels of language proficiency. The participants, according to the results of the post-test, showed no improvement over the task of "selecting