The Effect of Talking Story Books on Saudi Young EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The current research study investigated the effects of talking story books on Saudi young EFL learners’ reading comprehension skills. A sample of Saudi-young-EFL learners were randomly selected and divided into two groups: an experimental group (40 students) and a control group (39 students). Students of both groups took a pre reading comprehension test at the mid of the 2016 academic year. The researcher used the talking story books when teaching the experimental group for four weeks whereas the students in the control group were taught without the use of talking story books. After four weeks of instruction, both groups completed the same reading comprehension test again. Measures of the means, standard deviations, and MANCOVA were used to determine the differences between the two groups. The study revealed that students who attended reading classes using talking story books outperformed their control group counterparts in many reading-based skills. This is indicative of the positive effects of talking story books on EFL young learners reading comprehension skills.