The Impact of Creative Circles on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Creative Circles approach in developing Saudi EFL middle school learners’ reading comprehension. The study was carried out at a Saudi middle school in Jeddah, involving three intact third grade classes. A triangulated approach was adopted in order to collect data by means of multiple instruments- reading comprehension test, reflective journals and semi-structured interviews over the period of a school term. The results revealed a significant improvement in the experimental group’s reading comprehension abilities. The success of Creative Circles approach could be attributed to its adoption of collaborative reading as a teaching/learning technique, explicit teaching of reading skills, attention to low-level and high level reading processes and metacognitive awareness. Moreover, the experimental group as well as their teacher indicated that the new approach has immensely helped in addressing the issue of vocabulary learning. They also described the approach as efficient and flexible in large and mix-abilities classes.