one important issue that any material or test designer should bear in mind is to be careful about developing teaching and testing reading materials which would not be to the benefit of a group of readers or examinees and to the detriment of some others. one of the factors which may cause difference between the performances of english learners or test takers is the selection of reading tests wit...

This paper reflects on some important aspects related to online reading comprehension. In particular, it explains the Interactive REading Comprehension (IREC) model that explores the different dimensions and interactions involved in an online reading comprehension process. The components of the model and their impact on the two principal processes characterizing any reading activity on the web,...

Inspired by Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT), the current study intended to investigate the effect of summary training (i.e., oral and written) on intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension in different conditions (i.e., individual and collaborative). Data collection tools and procedures encompassed PET test, First Certificate in English (FCE) reading pre-test, and post-test. First, ...

this study is aimed at investigating the general foreign language classroom anxiety levels of iranian university students through administering horwitz scale (flcas) in addition to examining their reading anxiety through replicating saito’s reading comprehension anxiety scale (flras). the researchers further checked the former by developing and performing a new five–point likert type questionna...

Background: Cooperative learning as an educational approach plays a crucial role in English as a second/foreign language education. The effective role of cooperative learning seems to be so dominant that it deserves further investigation. Objectives: This study aimed at investigating the impact of cooperative learning strategies on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning of nursing stude...

background: testing and teaching are interrelated in education process; using various kinds of tests, teachers are able to anticipate the strong and weak points of learning in students, their progress and their accomplishment. the influence of test on teaching and learning is commonly referred to as washback. testing washback is a twisted concept that becomes even more complex under a various i...

introduction: acquisition of intelligible english pronunciation and comprehension of medical texts has been considered as an important need for medical students.  this can be improved by employing different methods and taking into consideration various learning styles of students. this study is an attempt to reveal the effect of cooperative learning on enhancing pronunciation and reading compre...

although filling the gap in reading comprehension gained momentum with the rise of the top-down approach, vygotsky’ concept of scaffolding and the dual code  theory provided a strong support for the use of paratext to enhance comprehension. scaffolding is dependent on other-regulation, one type of which is object-regulation. from this vantage-point, various types of paratext can function as sou...

This study investigated the effectiveness of discourse structure-based graphic organizers (GOs) on students’ reading comprehension. Seventy learners were randomly divided in two equal experimental and control groups. They took a pre-test of reading comprehension. Then the experimental group analyzed the textual structures based on the frameworks of GOs and discussed the cohesive and coherent de...