An experimental study of the use of the reciprocal teaching technique in teaching English reading comprehension

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate and compare two teaching techniques, the translation technique and the reciprocal teaching technique, to investigate their effectiveness in improving English reading comprehension and English reading achievement of first-year Nursing students at the Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University. The subjects of this study were 60 first-year Nursing students in the 1997 academic year at the Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University. The subjects were divided into 2 groups the control and the experimental groups. Each group had 30 students. The control group was taught by the translation technique while the experimental group was taught by the reciprocal teaching technique. The research instruments employed in this study were an English achievement test and two different questionnaires, one for each group. The English achievement test was created by the researcher to evaluate English reading achievement in both groups of subjects. The scores obtained from the pre-test and the post-test of the control and the experimental groups were analyzed to find out the effectiveness of the two teaching techniques. The rating-scale questionnaires were also given to students in order to investigate their attitudes toward the teaching technique they received and their suggestions. The findings from the study indicate that: 1. There was a significant improvement between scores gained from the reading pre-test and the reading post-test for students in the control group taught by the use of the translation technique. 2. The mean scores on the post-test of students in the experimental group taught by the reciprocal teaching technique were significantly higher than the scores on the pre-test. 3. The post-test scores obtained by students in the experimental group taught by the reciprocal teaching technique were significantly higher than the post-test scores obtained by students in the control group taught by the translation technique. 4. The mean scores of both high-reading ability students and l;