Do Collaborative and non-collaborative strategy-based instructions influence attitude toward reading

The current study attempts to compare the impact of collaborative and non-collaborative reading strategy instruction on attitude toward reading. To this end, 45 adult English learners in Iran Language Institute (ILI) in three classes were chosen and divided into three groups. One group functioning as the control group did not receive any strategy instruction; the second one, chosen as the first experimental group, received reading strategy instruction according to a collaborative method (Collaborative Strategic Reading or CSR), and the third group was considered as the second experimental group in which the strategies were taught by focusing on individual practice. An attitude questionnaire was given to all the groups at the beginning of the term as pre-test and post-test; the two experimental groups underwent reading strategy instruction in cooperative and non-cooperative modes. The results indicated that both the collaborative and non-collaborative groups outperformed the control group in attitude toward reading. However, although the collaborative group gained better mean ranks than the non-collaborative one, there was not a significant difference between the two experimental groups. It could be argued that though reading strategy instruction in both collaborative and non-collaborative methods could be similarly beneficial for EFL learners, teachers of reading courses are encouraged to teach reading strategies in collaborative groups so that the learners benefit from the positive aspects of reading collaboratively and in a social context.

Keywords:

strategy instruction , collaborative and non-collaborative , attitude , reading comprehension