The impact of content-based pre-reading activities on iranian high school efl learners’ reading comprehension

Abstract

Most specialists in the field of foreign language reading consider reading as an interactive process between the text and the reader’s prior knowledge. Therefore, the activation of prior background knowledge for an effective comprehension is very important. It is generally agreed that the pre-reading phase is the stage where we can help this interaction and activation take place. There are different strategies and techniques which could be applied to make sure of this interaction and to achieve the final goal of reading, i.e. comprehension. In this study, we focus on the pre-reading phase and the impact of three pre-reading techniques (the brainstorming, the kwl (what I know, want to know, learned), and the pre-questioning techniques) on reading comprehension. 125 high school students, both boys and girls, studying pre-university in Tarom, Zanjan, participated in the study. They were assigned to four groups: one control group and three experimental groups for each of the three pre-reading techniques. The results of data analysis indicated that all the experimental groups that used the pre-reading techniques did significantly better in their comprehension than the control group which received no technique. Meanwhile, the KWL group exceeded the other two groups in their performance.