Effects of cooperative integrated reading and composition (CIRC) technique on reading-writing skills

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of the cooperative integrated reading and composition (CIRC) technique and the traditional reading and writing pedagogical methods for primary school students. The study group was composed of 45 7th grade students enrolled at a primary school at the centre of Giresun Province in the 2009/2010 academic year. “Pre-test-post-test control group” model was adopted in the present study. Experimental and control groups were randomly assigned: 24 students were grouped into experimental group and 21 students into control group. Written Expression Achievement Test (WEAT) and Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT), both developed by the researcher, were used to collect data related to the study groups’ writing skills and reading comprehension skills, respectively. Results were analyzed via 2-way ANOVA test in the SPSS program. WEAT and RCAT were applied as pre-, post- and retention-test to the control and experimental groups. At the end of the statistical analysis, it was revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the reading and writing skills of the experimental and control groups in terms of academic achievement and retention. This difference was discovered in favour of the cooperative integrated reading and composition technique. Key words: Reading, writing, cooperative integrated reading and composition technique, traditional teaching.