THE EFFECT OF FORM-FOCUSED VS. MEANING-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION ON READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION AMONG IRANIAN GUIDANCE SCHOOL STUDENTS

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of form-focused vs. meaning-focused instruction on the development of reading comprehension among Iranian elementary EFL learners in a content-based context. Therefore, SAMA junior high school (related to Islamic Azad University) in Mashhad, was chosen as the research site. A general language proficiency test of Nelson (book1, Elementary 050A) was used to measure their general language ability. Also, standard KET reading comprehension test was implemented to examine the participants’ reading comprehension development level. Participants were divided into: form-focused instruction (FFI) group, meaning-focused instruction (MFI) group, and a control group. The numbers of students were 30, 28 and 28 respectively. The FFI group performed activities such as underlining structures in texts. The MFI group was assigned activities such as pair/group discussion, while the control group did not receive meaning/form-focused instruction. The data were analyzed via SPSS software to compare the means of the groups involved. The results ascertained that form and meaning-focused groups significantly outperformed the control group. It also disclosed that form-focused group performed better than meaning-focused group on KET reading comprehension test unexpectedly. As a conclusion, it might be generalized that both form-focused and meaning-focused methods of teaching can promote the reading comprehension of EFL learners in a content-based context.