THE EFFECT OF USING PICTOGLOSS ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of using pictoglosses as a classroom activity in teaching English reading comprehension skill on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. The questions this study tried to answer were 1) whether using pictoglosses might enhance a more acceptable reading comprehension performance in Iranian learners of English at university level, 2) whether there was a difference between the means of the experimental (treated) group and the control (placebo) group of the study across the participants' sex. To answer the questions, 60 (30 male and 30 female) junior undergraduate translator trainees participated in the experiment of the study. They were randomly selected from among a population of translator trainees via an OPT test score of at least one standard deviation below the mean. They were then divided into two groups of 30 and were randomly assigned to an experimental (+Pictogloss) and a control group (-Pictogloss). A pretest of English reading comprehension was administered to both groups, then, they were taught reading compehension for 10 sessions but with different methodologies: the experimental group received a treatment of pictoglosses while the control group received a placebo. A posttest of reading comprehension was then administered to both groups. The data of the study were analysed using the two-way ANCOVA to indicate the groups mean difference. The results indicated that the Iranian EFL learners in the experimental group received higher reading comprehension score after being treated with 10 sessions of pictoglosses.