The Effect of Two Teaching Models on Developing Reading Comprehension among First Intermediate School Students

Abstract

This paper aims at identifying the effect of two teaching models on developing reading comprehension among first intermediate school students. For the sake of achieving this aim, the researcher adopted an experimental design of partial adjustment which is the design of (two first and second experimental groups) and (pre and post tests).The sample of the study comprised (52) male first intermediate year students who are studying in Alwathiq Secondary school, Khalis Directorate of Education/ Diyala Province who are randomly distributed into two experimental groups of (26) students each. The first experimental group is taught according to Suchman model, while the second experimental group is taught via using Thelen model. The researcher, then, matched between students of both groups in the variables of (students' periodic age, fathers' academic achievement, mothers' academic achievement, pre reading comprehension test, and language proficiency test). Moreover, the researcher tried to adjust some intruding variables which might influence such type of experimental designs according to previous literature and past studies. After specifying the topics to be taught, which included certain topics extracted from the reading comprehension book designed for first intermediate school students in a total number of (8) headings, the researcher has set (eight) lesson plans for the first experimental group according to Suchman model, as well as other (eight) lesson plans for the second experimental group in light of Thelen model. She has also set an objective reading comprehension test comprising of (30) multiple choice and essay items, she verified its validity, the recognition power in its items and their difficulty coefficient. Furthermore, via using Chi Square in data analysis, the study led to the following result:-There is statistically significant difference between students in the first experimental group who were taught reading according to Suchman model and students in the second experimental group who were taught reading according to Thelen model in terms of their average scores in the pre and post reading comprehension improvement tests.In light of the study results, the researcher recommended the necessity of making use of Suchman and Thelen models in teaching reading comprehension for first intermediate school students. The, and in continuation of the present study, the researcher suggested performing a number of studies and researches in the field of reading comprehension as, for instance, conducting a study that is aiming at finding out the impact of using two teaching models in improving reading comprehension.