L1-assisted reciprocal teaching to improve ESL students’ comprehension of English expository text

A multiple-baseline design across three schools was used to investigate the effects of L1-assisted reciprocal teaching on 12 Year 7 and Year 8 (Grades 6 and 7) Taiwanese ESL students’ comprehension of English expository text. The intervention comprised the alternate use of L1 (Mandarin) and L2 (English) reciprocal teaching procedures. Through 15–20 days of instruction, students learned how to foster and monitor their comprehension by using the cognitive and metacognitive strategies of questioning, summarising, clarifying, and predicting. Students made gains on both researcher-developed and standardised tests of reading comprehension and showed evidence of qualitative changes in their comprehension processes when reading L1 and L2 texts.