READING COMPREHENSION IN TPSOL (IN ISLAMIC SCIENCES) WITHIN A TASK-BASED FRAMEWORK

The present research is aimed to examine the reading comprehension skill of upper-intermediate learners in the field of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages (TPSOL) within Islamic Sciences. In achieving its aims within the framework of task-based approach and on the basis of Neil Andersons’s (1999) reading pattern, ten task-based lessons were designed. A corpus of 50 upper-intermediate Persian learners Al-Mustafa University (among 12-25 years old) was randomly selected for the study. In taking the research further, a researcher-designed pretest has been performed for measuring both the control group (who received the usual syllabus of Al-Mustafa University) and the experimental group (who received the designed lessons) before and after the treatment. Doing so, and in measuring the effectiveness of the treatment, both groups received a posttest. Dependent T-test was utilized to analyze the data obtained from tests. The research findings illustrated the positive & significant effect of the syllabi designed, which by itself supports the efficiency of the task-based approach and Andersons’s reading pattern in enhancing the learners reading comprehension skill.