The effects of the reciprocal teaching method on the achievements of argentinean EFL college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is three-fold: to investigate the effects of the strategy training model Reciprocal Teaching on the reading comprehension performance of Argentinean EFL college students; to compare the effects of this training model on readers with different reading-comprehension proficiency levels; and to investigate about the students` perceptions of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies they used and/or believed to use before and after the training period. The pre/ post test design used in this experience was mainly quantitative, although qualitative data were collected to help triangulate results. Students were administered a questionnaire (SILL), a pre-test and a post-test, two semi-structured questionnaires after the pre and post-tests, and a final semi-structured questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed and the results were triangulated to cross-validate them. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the quantitative data. The qualitative data were quantified by categorising the students` answers. The results showed that this strategy training helped enhance students` reading-comprehension, and that the method contributed to improve poor readers` reading ability. The training model Reciproca` Teaching helped the students know why, when, and how to use the strategies, and this, in turn, led them to become more autonomous and strategic readers. It would be quite interesting and recommended to replicate this study in similar EFL contexts and to incorporate this training model in the tertiary level curriculum because not only has it shown to be useful for the reading comprehension of texts in English but it may also help students become better readers in other Ll contexts. It would also be quite beneficial for teachers and students to adopt the Reciprocal Teaching procedure, especially the direct explanation of each strategy use and the frequent teacher modelling of each strategy.