The effect of pre-task activity types(SRE, PALS, CSR) on L2 reading comprehension and vocabulary recognition and recall

To investigate the comparative effects of pre-task activities in terms of three types of instructional frameworks, namely Scaffolded Reading Experience (SRE), Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), and Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) on L2 reading comprehension and vocabulary recognition and recall, a sample of 108 Iranian Intermediate level EFL students in a private language institute in Karaj was selected. Then, the participants were randomly assigned to four different treatment conditions. One class served as the comparison group and the other three acted as the treatment groups. A pretest was also given to make sure that the participants had no prior knowledge of the target words prior to the study. A reading comprehension and two vocabulary post-tests were administered after the experimental period. Three separate one-way ANOVA procedures were employed to analyse the obtained data. The results showed that the CSR group significantly outperformed the other groups in their reading comprehension performance. The results also showed a significant difference between the PALS group and the comparison group regarding vocabulary recognition; the PALS group outperformed the latter. Regarding vocabulary recall, no statistically significant differences could be found among the experimental groups.

SRE, PALS, CSR, reading comprehension , vocabulary