Abstract:

This quasi-experimental study explored the impact of a seven-week intervention in reciprocal teaching (RT) on improving pre-service English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers’ (PSEFLTs) reading comprehension skills. The experimental group (N = 56) were subjected to an intervention designed to help them understand and apply the steps in RT while the control group (N = 53) attended to reading classes taught conventionally. Data was collected from a pre-reading test administered prior to the commencement and a post-reading test administered following the intervention, and a semi-structured interview. The findings revealed there was no statistically significant difference in experimental and control participants’ reading comprehension skills in the pre-reading test; nevertheless, the experimental group outperformed the control group in the post-reading test. Analysis of the qualitative data demonstrated the PSEFLTs viewed the RT intervention as effective in developing their reading comprehension skills and would implement it in their future teaching.

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