The Effect of Pre-reading Activities on the Comprehension of L2 Texts by Iranian Pre-intermediate EFL Learners

Abstract

This present study investigated the effects of pre-reading activities on the reading comprehension ability of Iranian pre-intermediate level EFL learners. To this end, 40 female EFL learners with the age of 14 to 18 who were studying at Soroush English Institute in Rasht, Iran were selected from a larger population based on their performance on a Quick Placement Test. Then the participants were randomly assigned to one experimental and one control group. A pretest piloted before with the reliability index of .86 was administered to both groups. Next, the experimental group received 10 sessions treatment that was vocabulary pre-teaching. Meanwhile, the control group received its usual classroom teaching. Then, a posttest with the reliability index of .88 was administered to both groups. The result of this study revealed that experimental group who received the new treatment achieved higher proficiency in reading comprehension than the control group. Therefore, the result of this study confirmed that pre-reading activities and vocabulary pre-teaching can statistically improve the participants’ reading comprehension ability.