The Role of Using Creative Tasks in Improving Reading Comprehension Among EFL High School Learners
Abstract
Increasing learners’ performance in all skills especially in reading ability has always been the primary concern of language teachers. The present study examined the possible outcomes of the effectiveness of one type of TBLT’s task, creative tasks, on improving reading comprehension of EFL high school learners in Kerman. In total 70 male high school learners and 70 female high school learners in Kerman joined this study and after a homogenizing test was taken each gender of intermediate level was assigned to two homogenous groups of experimental and control consisted of 25 students. Data was collected in a Pretest and Posttest design. Pretest showed that control and experimental groups were not different regarding their reading comprehension. After using creative tasks as treatment in experimental groups, the statistical results demonstrated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest in that experimental group outperformed the control group in posttest reading comprehension test. Findings indicated that using creative tasks can effectively contribute to enhancing the ability of EFL high school learners in reading comprehension.
Key words:
Task, Creative Tasks, Reading Comprehension, EFL Learners.
فهرست مطالب
1.2. Statement of the Problem.. 3
1.3. Significance of the Study. 3
1.4. Objectives of the Study. 4
1.7.2. Creativity in Language Learning. 6
1.8. Limitations and Delimitations. 7
1.9. Definition of key Terms. 8
Chapter Two : Review of Literature
2.2. Task- based language teaching. 10
2.5.4. Teacher’s and Learners’ Roles. 15
2.7.1. Willis’ classification. 17
2.7.2. Prabhu’s Classification. 18
2.7.3. Closed and Open Tasks. 18
2.8. Phases of the Task-based Framework. 19
2.8.2. The During-Task Phase. 21
2.8.3. The Post-Task Phase. 21
2.9. Task-based Approach (TBA) VS Traditional Teaching Methods. 22
2.10. Approaches to Task-based language Teaching. 22
2.11. Characteristics of Task-based Language Teaching. 23
2.13. Benefits and Challenges of Task-based Language Teaching. 24
2.15.1. Intensive and Extensive Reading. 26
2.15.7. Reading for meaning. 28
2.16. The Three Phases in a Reading Lesson. 29
2.17. Characteristics of Skilled Readers. 31
2.19. Factors Influencing RC outcomes. 33
2.19.2. Environmental Factors. 35
2.20. Individual Differences and RC Difficulties. 35
2.21. Different Reading Activities. 36
2.22. Characteristics of Active Reading Tasks. 36
2.23. The Application of TBT in Reading class. 37
2.25. Creative Tasks in Reading Class: Communicative Tasks versus Creative Tasks. 41
2.26. Other Studies in this Field. 41
3.5. Data collection procedures. 46
3.6. Data analysis procedures. 46
Chapter Four: Data presentation
4.2. Descriptive Statistics of Research Variables. 50
4.2.1. Normality Hypotheses. 50
4.3. Data Analysis Results. 52
Chapter Five: Results and Implications
5.4. Examining Research Hypotheses. 58
5.5. Implication of the study. 58
5.6. Suggestions for Further Research. 59
Appendices. 69
List of Tables
Table Page
2.1: A framework for designing task-based lessons. 16
2.2. A comparison of three approaches to TBLT.. 22
3.1: Frequency Distributions of subjects in male subjects. 44
3.2: Frequency Distributions of subjects in female subjects. 44
4.1: The normality of variables. 50
4-2: Group statistics of reading comprehension variable in pretest and posttest 50
4-3: Independent –sample T Test of reading comprehension scores in male control group 52
4-4: Independent –sample T Test of reading comprehension scores in male experimental group 52
4-6: Independent –sample T Test of reading comprehension scores in female control group 53
4-7: Independent –sample T Test of reading comprehension scores in female control group 54
List of Charts
Chart Page
4-1: Comparison of reading ability in pretest and posttest of female group. 51
4-2: Comparison of reading ability in pretest and posttest of male group. 51
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