The Effect of the Directed Reading Thinking Activity through Cooperative Learning on English Secondary Stage Students' Reading Comprehension in Jordan

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the effect of the directed reading thinking activity through using cooperative learning on English secondary stage students’ reading comprehension in Jordan. This study answered the following research question: - What is the effect of the directed reading thinking activity through cooperative learning on English secondary stage students’ reading comprehension in Jordan? The subjects of the study were chosen purposefully from public schools in Amman Second Directorate of Education. It consisted of 42 students who were enrolled in two sections in one school. The experimental group encompassed 22 students and the control group encompassed 20 students. The teaching program was based on a strategy which included the direct reading thinking activity through using cooperative learning designed to teach four units to the experimental group. The units were taken from the English course textbook “Jordan Opportunities” prescribed for the Eleventh Grade in Jordanian public schools during the second semester of the scholastic year 2007/2008. The same units were taught to the control group through the traditional strategy. For the purpose of the current study the researcher used: - A reading comprehension test. Means, standard deviations and analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used to reveal the findings of the study which were as follows: - There is a statistically significant difference at (α= 0.05) in reading comprehension in favor of the experimental group among English secondary stage students in Jordan due to the instructional strategy. At the end of this study, the researcher proposed several recommendations and suggestions.