THE EFFECTS OF OPINION AND REASONING TASKS ON MALE AND FEMALE IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION

THIS STUDY AIMED AT INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT COGNITIVE TASKS ON IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION. THE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS STUDY WERE THE INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH LEARNERS AT SADR INSTITUTE IN ISFAHAN; OUT OF 102 LEARNERS ENROLLED TO CONTINUE THEIR EFL COURSE, 60 PARTICIPANTS WERE SELECTED BASED ON THEIR PERFORMANCES ON THE OXFORD PLACEMENT TEST. THE PARTICIPANTS WERE DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS OF EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS; THE MALE AND FEMALE EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS WERE TAUGHT WITH COGNITIVE TASKS; THE MALE AND FEMALE CONTROL GROUPS WERE TAUGHT VIA THE TRADITIONAL METHOD. THE INSTRUMENTS UTILIZED IN THIS STUDY INCLUDED THE SAME TEST USED AS PRETEST AND POSTTEST CONSISTING OF QUESTIONS BASED ON THE STUDENTS' TEXTBOOK. INDEPENDENT-SAMPLES T TESTS WERE USED TO DETERMINE WHETHER THERE WERE SIGNIFICANT BETWEEN AND WITHIN-GROUP DIFFERENCES. THE RESULTS PROVIDED EVIDENCE THAT COGNITIVE TASKS SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCED EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION. BASED UPON THE FINDINGS OF THE STUDY, COGNITIVE TASKS ARE THUS RECOMMENDED TO BE INTEGRATED INTO THE ENGLISH INSTRUCTION AS PART OF A COURSE, WHICH IS CONSIDERED AS A VERY EFFECTIVE WAVE OF EDUCATION REFORM IN IRAN. THE FINDINGS COULD ALSO BE OF IMPORTANCE FOR MATERIAL DEVELOPERS AND TEACHERS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AS THEY ARE CONCERNED WITH STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION.