Abstract
<p>Reading comprehension has been the main concern for second language learners and researchers. Today with rising interests towards Vygotskyan Sociocultural Theory (SCT), attempts have been made to insert Vygotskyan approach into Foreign/Second Language classrooms emphasizing the role of scaffolding and meaningful interactions to promote learners’ comprehension. Having this on mind, the current study used shadow-reading as a means of meaning internalization to see if it affects on reading comprehension. To this end, 52 junior EFL learners from two universities were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. A pretest of reading comprehension including 4 reading passages with 20 Multiple Choice items was administered to the learners to see if they were at the similar level of reading comprehension. During 10 sessions, the learners were provided with shadow-reading strategy in which they were required to listen and repeat the passage in a well-disciplined imitative task and, then summarize what they had comprehended from the text. A reading comprehension post test was also administered at the end of the semester after 10 sessions of conducting shadowing. The data of the first and the last sessions was analysed. The findings of the study showed that shadow-reading has significantly influenced learners’ comprehension. The results also lent support to Vygotskyan theory in that using shadowing as a means of meaningful imitation and interaction facilitates comprehension among learners. The results also shed light on the way through which instructors try to promote learners’ comprehension. It seems that shadow reading due to its sociocultural traits can be used as an appropriate means of promoting reading comprehension all over the world.</p>
Highlights
The issue of comprehension has been of the main concerns of researchers and experts in foreign language (L2) classrooms
The results of applying shadowing clearly revealed the effect of shadowing on reading comprehension of Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners
This strategy might lend support to the Vygotskyan sociocultural theory in that working within ZPD, the potential ability of the learners by successive meaningful repetition, could mediate the relationship between the actual and potential ability of the learners
Summary
The issue of comprehension has been of the main concerns of researchers and experts in foreign language (L2) classrooms. Many researchers have concentrated their studies on finding ways to enhance learners’ reading comprehension ability. To enhance comprehension in reading comprehension classes. Reading comprehension is emphasized in L2 classes, learners are encouraged not to look all unknown words up in dictionary; the learners put much time and energy into improving their reading comprehension ability, they have still difficulty getting and retaining the meaning. Reading comprehension has been viewed from two different approaches, one set of research studies view text comprehension as meaning extracting process while others see it as meaning-constructing one (e.g., Buck, 2003; Roebuck, 1998; Kern, 2000)
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