The Effect of Pre-reading Activities on the Reading Comprehension Performance of Ilami High School Students

The present study was conducted for two purposes:(1) to compare the learners' comprehension ability before and after the implementation of two types of pre-reading activities, guessing reading content from asking pre-reading questions and vocabulary definition, (2) to investigate the learners' attitudes towards the implementation of two pre-reading activities. Research participants consisted of 60 grade-10 students studying at Omol Habibeh high school in Ilam, Iran. A test of reading comprehension ability was administered to assign the subjects into two groups. The two groups were given different pre-reading activity, guessing reading content from asking pre-reading questions and vocabulary definition, respectively. The research instrument consisted of reading comprehension test (used as pre- and post-tests). The experiment using the two pre reading activities were carried out for 5 weeks two sessions a week. The data was analyzed statistically to identify means, standard deviation, and t-value. It was found that after implementation of the 2 pre-reading activities the subjects performed better in the post-test, at significant level of .05. When compared the results of the 2 pre-reading activities, it was found that the group receiving guessing meaning from pre-reading questions performed better that their counterpart who experienced vocabulary definitions, at. 05. It was also found that both groups were satisfied with the activity they experienced. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.