THE EFFECT OF GIVING THE GIST OF READING PASSAGE IN THE STUDENTS' MOTHER TONGUE BEFORE TEACHING READING ON THE STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION.

This study investigates the effect of giving the gist of reading passage in the students' mother tongue before teaching reading on the students' reading comprehension. Two homogeneous male groups of students at the age of 25-37 have been selected. All students have had the same amount of exposure to English before the experiment. One of the groups was chosen as the control group, and the other as the experimental group. For one term consisting of 14 weeks, each week two sessions of 90 minutes each, the students in the control group were taught their textbook reading comprehension. In the experimental group, the gist of reading passage in the students' mother tongue, at most in one or two sentences were given; then the reading comprehension was taught in the same way as it was taught in the control group. At the end of the term the reading ability of both groups was post-tested by a reading comprehension test. The result of the test shows that giving the gist of the reading passage in the students' mother tongue before teaching reading has a considerable effect on the reading ability of the experimental group. The outcome of the study can have valuable implications for teaching reading comprehension.