On the Effectiveness of Guided Cluster Strategies on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension Ability

Reading strategies are closely related to reading comprehension. Guided strategy reading is a set of instructional strategies designed to improve the reading comprehension of students with diverse abilities. Accordingly, the current study intended to investigate the impact the effect of guided cluster strategies on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. In so doing, ۲۸ EFL learners, taking English course at Nasim English Language Institute in Rasht, Iran, were selected as homogeneous participants based on Solutions Placement Test. Next, they were assigned to one experimental group and one control group. The participants took a pretest of reading comprehension the purpose of which was to know their initial knowledge of reading comprehension. Next, they received their own specific instructions as intervention programs. The two comparison groups received the same materials but with different treatments. Next, the learners took the posttest of reading comprehension so that the effect of types of intervention programs on their reading comprehension ability would be indicated. The results of independent-samples t-test and paired samples t-test showed that the experimental group that received reading comprehension through guided strategy reading outperformed the learners in the control group with regard to reading comprehension improvement. The findings of the present study can be employed by teachers to utilize the best possible source to teach English language reading comprehension to Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level.

کلیدواژه ها:

Reading strategies ، Guided strategy ، Instructional strategy ، Reading comprehension