Competitive team-based learning vs. Reciprocal teaching of reading: A study in reading classes

Abstract

This study was an experimental investigation on the effects of a new innovative approach to ELT/Education namely Competitive Team-Based Learning (CTBL), developed by Hosseini (2009, 2019) at Mashhad Rooyan Research Center in Iran, and Reciprocal Teaching of Reading (RTR), developed by Palinscar, at the University of Michigan and Brown (1985), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL intermediate students. See the introductory 17-minute video to CTBL at https://youtu.be/cPtOUaIkJlk or at http://www.aparat.com/v/i32tK. After administering Interchange placement test to a total population of 75, and after ensuring that the participants were homogenous and at intermediate level, sixty students were selected, based on their scores in the pretest. Then, they were randomly assigned to two experimental groups – thirty per group. Each class was divided into seven teams of four – the two remaining students in each class worked in pairs. Before the experiment, the researchers conducted the Interchange reading test. In the course of experimentation, while the first experimental group was instructed via RTR method of CL, the second experimental group was instructed via Hosseini's approach to (language) teaching (i.e., CTBL). At the end of the study, the reading comprehension test (posttest) was used to assess the probable progress in the reading comprehension ability of the students. Independent samples T-test illustrated statistical significance at P≤0.05 level that proved the superiority of CTBL over RTR on the participants' reading comprehension achievements. Suggestions to researchers have been put forward at the end of the present article.