ON THE IMPACT OF TASK-BASED AND TASK-SUPPORTED LANGUAGE TEACHING ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION

THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO COMPARE THE EFFECTS OF TASK-SUPPORTED AND TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING ON READING COMPREHENSION OF IRANIAN PREINTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS. TO THIS END, 90 FEMALE AND MALE PRE-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS AT ISLAMIC AZAD UNIVERSITY, LAHIJAN BRANCH, WERE SELECTED FROM 120 PARTICIPANTS BASED ON THEIR PERFORMANCE ON QUICK PLACEMENT TEST. THE PURPOSE OF QPT WAS TO HOMOGENIZE THE PARTICIPANTS BASED ON THEIR PROFICIENCY LEVEL. THE PARTICIPANTS WERE DIVIDED INTO THREE GROUPS I.E. TWO EXPERIMENTAL AND ONE CONTROL GROUP. EACH GROUP CONSISTED OF 30 PARTICIPANTS. A PRETEST WAS ADMINISTERED TO ALL THE PARTICIPANTS, AND THEN THE TWO EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS RECEIVED TASK-SUPPORTED AND TASK-BASED TEACHING FOR 10 SESSIONS, WHILE THE CONTROL GROUP RECEIVED ITS NORMAL CLASSROOM TEACHING. AT LAST, A POSTTEST WAS ADMINISTERED TO THREE GROUPS. THE FINDINGS OF THIS STUDY REVEALED THAT EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS OUTPERFORMED THE CONTROL GROUP IN READING COMPREHENSION. MOREOVER, THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE TASK-SUPPORTED GROUP HAD A BETTER PERFORMANCE IN THE POSTTEST THAN THOSE OF THE TASK-BASED GROUP. THEREFORE, THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY CONFIRMED THAT TASK-SUPPORTED LANGUAGE TEACHING CAN SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY.