The impact of task-based instruction on reading comprehension ability among the Iranian EFL students

Abstract

The current study investigated the effect of task-based instruction in improving the reading comprehension ability among the Iranian EFL students. To conduct this study, a sample of 80 Iranian EFL students in Islamic Azad University, Larestan, Iran served as the participants of the study. After the administration of an Oxford Placement Test as the pre-test, the students were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. During the treatment, the students in the experimental group received some reading comprehension tasks, and the students in the control group received a placebo. At the end of the treatment, the students in both groups were administered a post-test. The result of this study revealed that the students in experimental group outperformed the students in the control group. In other words, task-based instruction was effective in increasing the reading comprehension ability.