The Impact of Consciousness Raising Strategies on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Scores in Online Classes

Reading comprehension is assumed to bear the most important share in learning a new language. At the same time, consciousness raising strategies in the context of foreign language learning have been the focus of many language specialists to date. These strategies can activate the role of mind in the process of language learning and improve the learners’ understanding. A plenty of studies highlight that learners should be encouraged to learn more about different consciousness raising strategies to enhance their own learning. Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of consciousness raising strategies on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension scores. To the end, sixty intermediate learners participated in this study. They were divided into two groups of experimental and control (N=30 for each). Subsequently, activities like noticing, checking, asking questions, analyzing, and producing were used as the treatment under the term of consciousness raising strategies in the experimental group. The control group received traditional way of teaching in online classrooms. The results of the main independent sample t-test on participants’ gain scores of reading comprehension from the pretest to posttest indicated that there was a significant difference between the means of gain scores ofexperimental group and that of control group. In other words, consciousness raising strategies proved to have significant effect on reading comprehension of EFL learners. Implications and suggestions for further studies were also highlighted.