Introduction
The role of reading comprehension ability
and its constituent components - especially
vocabulary in Second/Foreign Language
(SL/FL) acquisition - has long been
neglected, but currently, it is again receiving
attention in the language teaching
curriculum. As Nunan (1999) claims, this is
due to several reasons, including the
influence of comprehension-based
approaches to the development of language,
the role of applied linguists, and the
development of computer-based language
corpora. Developing reading comprehension
ability is an important aspect in acquisition
of a language.
Reading is a dialogue between the reader
and the writer and comprehension is a
procedure through which a reader builds
meaning from the text using his/her
knowledge, experience, and the information
from the text. Reading comprehension is the
ability to read and process a text and
understand its meaning. It is the process of
constructing meaning from a written or
printed text. There are a lot of approaches
and methods to improve reading
comprehension of SL/FL learners. Task-based Instruction (TBI) as an application of
communicative approach is a methodology
which focuses on functional tasks and
invites the students to use language for real
world. It “starts with a task-based needs
analysis to identify the target tasks for a
particular groups of learners- what they need
to be able to do in the new language” (Long,
2015, p. 6).
It is claimed that language learning will
result from creating the right kinds of
interactional processes in the classroom, and
the best way is using specially designed
instructional and functional tasks. Advocates
of TBI believe that communicative
competence can be developed through
engagement of learners in interactive tasks.
TBI makes strong claim for using tasks in
planning teaching and also in classroom
teaching. In TBI, students employ Target
Language (TL) to do tasks which are
meaningful and authentic.
Task, as an activity which is performed
through using language, ends in a
predictable product to which learners try to
reach. Communicative task engages learners
in comprehending, employing, or producing
in TL while focusing on meaning rather than
on form.
Over the years, different approaches,
methods, and procedures have been
developed to help learners learn English. In
some methods, attention is on teaching and
teacher-centeredness and the focus on
grammar and vocabulary learning is at level
of making the drills possible. The traditional
methods focus on the idea that once students
learn grammatical structures, they acquire
vocabulary. Most of students and teachers in
Iran know that vocabulary is important for
reading comprehension. However, most of
the techniques teachers use to teach reading
comprehension in Iran (especially at high
schools) are still traditional. Teachers mostly
focus on translation of units, practice of
grammar, and memorization of long lists of
vocabulary items and their meanings
without concentration on authentic tasks.
Only recently, some changes are being made
to reform methods of teaching to Iranian
high school learners. Therefore, this study
was an attempt to examine the effect of task-based instruction on reading comprehension
of Iranian EFL learners
Literature review
Second language and foreign language
teachers both seek to find the means,
activities, and tasks to help language
learners achieve their goals in learning
languages. Thus, task holds a central role in
language pedagogy and SL/FL language
research because it is used to assess what
learners can do in the L2.
The definition of the concept of task can
predetermine language use. As Nunan
(2004) claims, the concept of task has made
its way in syllabus design, classroom
teaching, and learner assessment. It has also
influenced pedagogical policies in ESL/EFL
classrooms. Task has been defined
differently by different experts in the field
(Lee, 2000; Long, 1985; Prabhu, 1987;
Skehan, 1996).
Ellis (2003) claims that the definitions of
task have addressed different dimensions
such as (a) the scope of a task, (b) the
perspective from which a task is viewed, (c)
its authenticity, (d) linguistic skills required
to perform a task, (e) psychological and
cognitive processes involved in performance
of a task, and (f) the outcome of a task.
Willis (1996, p. 23) defines task as “an
activity where the TL is used by the learner
for a communicative purpose in order to
achieve an outcome.” For Richard and
Rodgers (2014), a task is an activity carried
out as the outcome of processing or
understanding language. Tasks may end in
production of language. Using different
tasks can make language teaching more
communicative.
There are different types of tasks which
could be employed in ESL/EFL settings,
such as, jigsaw tasks, information-gap tasks,
problem-solving tasks, decision-making
tasks, opinion exchange task, etc. They are
generally divided into pedagogical tasks and
real-world tasks. Nunan (1989) believes that
task is an activity which necessarily includes
language. It involves learners in
comprehending, manipulating, producing, or
interacting in TL while they focus on
meaning rather than form. For Ellis (2003,
p.16) a pedagogical task is “a work plan that
requires learners to process language
pragmatically in order to achieve an
outcome that can be evaluated in terms of
whether the correct or appropriate
propositional content has been conveyed.”
The focus is on meaning even if the design
of the task affects learners’ choice of a
particular form. A task can refer to receptive
skills (listening and reading) or productive
skills (speaking and writing). Knowing the
definition and the dimensions can
differentiate TBI from traditional teaching
methods.
TBI emphasizes on conveying meaning with
a proposed product where learners can learn
and practice the forms of TL while paying
attention to meaning. Tasks are activities
that engage the participants to be language
users because tasks improve learners’ ability
to communicate in real-world.
As Schmitt (2008) stated, an important part
of mastering a SL is learning understanding
reading passages. L2 learners need a lot of
words to successfully read and understand.
Vocabulary is a powerful carrier of
comprehension. However, there is no
agreement over the best resources of
vocabulary learning/teaching. In line with
new developments in language teaching
methodology, some researchers (e.g. De La
Fuente, 2006; Keating, 2008) have argued
that integrating tasks in reading classes can
increase engagement and facilitate learning
and teaching. As Nation (2001) claimed, L2
learners usually know that their limitations
in their vocabulary knowledge affect their
communication skills, especially reading
comprehension because lexical items bear
the basic information for comprehension.
To increase reading comprehension ability,
different teachers employ different methods,
ranging from traditional ones to alternative,
communicative one. TBI as a substitute
method to traditional language teaching
method in teaching English is suggested
because it supports a method in which
functional communicative language use is
expected. Ellis (2009) believes that TBI can
be both input-providing and output-prompting. It is a refinement of CLT and
takes a fairly strong view of CLT (Skehan,
1996). It can be regarded as an opportunity
to return to the conceptual foundations of
CLT (Samuda & Bygate, 2008). In TBI
learning environment, learners are open to
choose and use the TL to accomplish
communicative goals. As Carless (2002, p.
389) claims, TBI has become “an orthodoxy
in contemporary EFL teaching and in recent
years has been exported to many countries
around the globe.”
In the literature, two early programs within a
communicative framework have used TBI.
They were the Malaysian Communicational
Syllabus (1975) and the Bangalore Project
(Prabhu, 1987). Although these two
instructional projects and programs were
used for a short time, they got significant
attention in language teaching community.
In a sample study by Nakamura (2008), the
researcher highlighted the use of TBI to help
develop skills in demonstrating learner
centered communicative and interactive
lessons to Japanese ELT students. Many
other researchers have studied the
integration or implementation of TBI in
teaching English, ESP, EAP, or reading
comprehension (Chodkieiwicz, 2001; Ellis,
2000; Skehan, 1998; Wallace, 2001; Willis,
1996). Some of them have shown interest in
using authentic materials to improve reading
comprehension ability of the EFL learners.
However, as Carless (2012) claims, most of
the contributions on TBI, focus on young
adults, mainly in university settings. He
claims that the literature on TBI in relation
to schooling remains comparatively modest.
Three noteworthy research studies on
implementation of TBI on the school sector
in Asian contexts are Sasayama and Izumi
(2012) with Japanese high school students,
Chan (2012) with primary school learners in
Hong Kong, and Park (2012) who focused
on data from a Korean secondary school.
Sasayama and Izumi (2012) investigated the
effect of TBI on Japanese high school
students through an experimental design,
but, the main focus of the study was on task
complexity and pre-task planning on
learners’ oral production. Chan (2012)
analyzed 20 lessons in Hong Kong primary
schools facilitated by TBI by focusing on
the way teachers manage the linguistic,
cognitive, and interactional demands of
tasks. Park’s (2012) study highlighted the
relative scarcity of research on TBI at high
schools and claimed that although TBI “has
attracted considerable attention since the
1980s, little research has been conducted on
its actual implementation in secondary EFL
contexts” (p. 215). Through an experimental
design, he implemented computer assisted
TBI in Korean secondary EFL context and
concluded that TBI can be effective in
Korean schools. He also stated that both
teachers and students found task-based
lessons effective and motivating. In Iran, the
employment of TBI in teaching English has
also been investigated by some researchers
on topics such as the impact of TBI, task
performance, TBI in ESP courses,
motivating characteristics of tasks, or
integration of TBI as an alternative approach
(Hayati & Jalilifar, 2010; Hokmi, 2005;
Iranmehr, Erfani, & Davari, 2011;
Poorahmadi, 2012). Although some studies
have been conducted on TBI in Iran, little
research has been done to evaluate actual
tasks in teaching English at high schools and
with school sector.
Due to the scarcity of research studies in
Iran especially at high schools, the present
study intended to examine the effect of
integration of TBI in teaching reading
comprehension to Iranian high school
students. In doing so, the following research
questions were posed:
1. Are there any differences between
the achievements of Iranian female
high school students taught through
TBI with those taught by traditional
method?
2. Are there any significant differences
between the achievements of junior
and senior Iranian female high
school learners taught through TBI?
Methodology
The present study was a quasi-experimental
research based on quantitative data gathered
from administering English reading
comprehension pre-tests and post-tests
during 2014-2015 in Isfahan, Iran. The data
were collected during normal class time in
English classes at high school.
Participants
The population of the study were Iranian
high school female students. The sampling
was based on availability sampling. The
participants were 135 female junior and
senior students (67 first-graders, and 68
fourth-graders) studying mathematics. The
first-graders were 13-15 and the fourth-
graders were 17-18 years old. The mean
scores of the two groups were used in order
to place them into two groups at each level.
Each grade was divided into two
experimental groups and two control groups
(EG1, and EG2; CG1, and CG2).
Instruments: Pre-test and post-test
Before the treatment, two tests on reading
comprehension ability were given to the
participants in both CGs and EGs as the
research pre-tests. After the treatment, two
post-tests measured their reading
comprehension ability. Each pre-test and
post-test consisted of four passages and 20
questions which were administered to the
students to test their ability in reading
comprehension at two levels and at two
stages before and after the treatment. Both
pre-tests and post-tests were selected from
supplementary books that the Ministry of
Education had published for first and fourth
graders. The grades were calculated out of
20 for both pre-tests and post-tests for both
CGs and EGs.
Treatment
EGs received a treatment consisting of
different tasks such as group discussion,
role play, interview, information gap, group
work, mystery task, simulations, and
journalist task while the CGs received only
traditional teaching activities with no focus
on tasks or TBI. The tasks for the EGs were
borrowed from Ozonder (2010) with
modifications. The instructions on
completing the tasks were given in detail to
the EGs (see Table1).
Data collection and analysis procedures
First, four intact classes of junior and senior
high school female students were selected
and divided into two EGs and two CGs.
After conducting the pre-tests, the EGs
received treatment based on TBI and the
tasks were given to them in order to teach
and practice reading comprehension. The
experiment lasted for four months; while
CGs received the materials of their
textbooks in a traditional way through
reading, translation of the materials, and
answering non-task-based reading
comprehension questions, the EGs received
TBI and completed tasks such as group
discussion, role play, interview, information
gap, group work, mystery task, simulations,
and journalist task (see Table 1). Teaching
time was divided into three phases: pre-task,
task, and post-task. In each phase, learners
received information on how to complete the
tasks.
In order to analyze the data, paired sample t-tests were run to examine whether there
were any significant differences in the
means of reading comprehension in CGs and
EGs for each grade. The independent sample
t-tests were also used to compare the means
of post-tests of EGs to find the probable
differences in the means of juniors and
seniors.
Results
The students’ reading comprehension ability
before and after the treatment was examined
through pre-tests and post-tests, and the data
were analyzed in terms of descriptive and
inferential statistics.
To guarantee that there were no statistically
significant differences between the means of
CGs and EGs on the pre-test, a paired
sample t-test was run at the very beginning
of the experiment. Table 2 shows the results
of the inferential statistics employed.
As presented in Table 2, no statistically
significant differences between the means of
CGs and EGs were observed. In other
words, the control and experimental groups
were homogeneous in terms of reading
comprehension ability before the treatment.
To determine if there were any statistically
significant differences between the means of
CGs and EGs on the post-tests, a paired
sample t-test was run after the treatment.
Table 3 presents the results of the inferential
statistics employed.
It can be inferred from Table 3 that there
were statistically significant differences
between the means of CGs and EGs after the
treatment. In other words, the participants in
the EGs outperformed meaningfully those in
the CGs.
Moreover, the results of the descriptive
statistical analyses of the scores of the
participants in ECs showed that the mean
score of first-graders was higher than that of
fourth-graders. Figure 1 depicts this
difference.
To examine whether the difference observed
between the means of the two EGs was
statistically significant, an independent
sample t-test was run. Table 4 displays the
results of the inferential statistics used.
As Table 4 shows, the two means were
statistically different. In other words, the
first-graders outperformed the fourth-graders in terms of reading comprehension
ability. The discussions and interpretations
of the results of the study will be presented
in the next section.
Discussion
In answering the questions concerning the
effect of TBI on reading comprehension
ability of Iranian high school female
students, the data were analyzed through
statistical procedures. The results showed
that the role of task was an attention injector
for Iranian high school students. They
became involved in the class works by
sharing answers, trying to participate,
paying attention, giving answers,
encouraging others to participate in the
activities and tasks, participating as
volunteers, working on the exercises, and so
on.
The results of the study also revealed that
the participants in the EGs, who were asked
to do the tasks, improved their performance.
The student-to-student interaction while
performing the tasks provided opportunities
for them to talk about vocabularies and
monitor the language they used. TBI
improved their interaction skills and
maximized their use of TL. During the tasks,
the students in EGs exchanged their ideas
and negotiated to learn their peers’ ideas,
attitudes, or beliefs on certain issues, and
became familiar with a lot of words related
to the topic. Of course, the students in EGs
had the chance to receive feedback from
their teacher and also their classmates. The
existence of such a feedback provided a
more relaxing and less threatening condition
for them and created a collaborative learning
experience. Yet, the exercises in the CGs did
not stimulate the appropriate processes very
much to bring the EFL learners to the level
of fully learning the words. They did not
receive any feedback from their peers, and
the only authority for judging the accuracy
of exercises was the teacher. Therefore, the
traditional approach was not very successful
in helping the students work collaboratively.
The first-graders showed a statistically
significant difference partly due to their high
motivation levels. In other words, the juniors
performed better compared to the seniors.
This might be because of the time spent on
activities. The fourth-graders were busy with
their preparations for University Entrance
Exam because it was the most important
exam during their studies and many of them
preferred to get ready for this exam rather
than get a good score in their final exams.
Some of them did not participate in class
with as much ease and confidence as many
of the juniors. The composition and internal
structure of the learner group among first-graders was changing the class atmosphere
to a great extent and helping the students
feel secure and comfortable because they
were part of a cohesive group. The high
level engagements of first-graders made
greater group cohesiveness. When grade
differences were taken into consideration,
however, fourth-graders appeared to be
affected negatively by their anxiety.
Conclusion
The results of this study are in line with
Hokmi (2005) who claimed that teachers can
adapt teaching materials in such a way as to
create a situation which helps meaningful
engagement of the learners, and, as a result,
successful completion of the tasks. The
results are also in agreement with Iranmehr
et al. (2011) who supported the
implementation of tasks and presented the
significant advantage of teaching through
TBI. This study also supports the findings of
Poorahmadi (2012) who believed that TBI
was very effective in improving reading
comprehension ability of Iranian EFL
students.
The results of this study can offer
pedagogical implications at macro and
micro levels. At the macro level, decision-makers, policy-makers, and curriculum
developers can make use of the findings of
this research in designing much more
adequate and efficient syllabi which is more
adaptable with TBI, and more
communicative approaches. Implementation
of TBI as an alternative teaching method,
can be a part of the teacher training or in-service programs.
At the micro-level and in practice, the
research results could benefit the teachers,
evaluators, test-developers, and the students
in the field of EFL in different academic
contexts. Practitioners in the field can
employ tasks and activities based on TBI to
teach reading comprehension, its different
aspects and components, or other skills to
Iranian EFL learners. For this purpose,
language teaching programs should
familiarize teachers with TBI, its basic
principles and techniques, and its
implementation within current approaches.
Teachers can also evaluate their students’
performances by using different tasks rather
than traditional paper-and-pencil exams.
Moreover, studies like the present one, can
raise the awareness of the students about the
positive role and effects of tasks in learning
English, and can encourage them to demand
for alternative methods from their teachers,
books, and educational system.
The results of the present study hopefully
will stimulate teachers to alter their reading
classes from traditional atmosphere to more
dynamic and communicative situations.
Through implementation of TBI, they can
facilitate and improving reading
comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. As
Basturkmen (2006, p. 125) claimed, TBI
“will provide room for the teacher to predict
the learners’ potentiality of their future
performance in their professional, academic
or work place where better performance is
considered respected.”
In addition to the potential pedagogical
benefits from this study, researchers can
investigate other skills such as listening,
pronunciation, speaking to examine the
possible role of TBI. Studying TBI in
learning reading comprehension with a
larger number of participants at different
levels of proficiency over a longer period of
time, and emphasizing qualitative research
could be interesting areas for further
research. Because this study was conducted
with a limited number of participants, it is
suggested to expand the replications of this
study to other language situations such as
guidance schools, universities, or institutes.
Triangulation of different instruments such
as interview, observation, and questionnaires
for both teachers and learners can also
provide better insights relating to the effects
of tasks and TBI.
