Zahra Soleimani

Reading Comprehension Strategies: the Effects of Reciprocal Teaching vs. Think-aloud Zahra Soleimani

Comprehension is one of the five core components of reading, which has been a hot topic for the last few years. It is a complex process that requires students to use multiple cognitive skills. Students also need to have direct instruction of strategies, which can help develop reading comprehension. The purpose of this book is to investigate the effects of reciprocal teaching vs. think-aloud on the English reading comprehension of pre-intermediate students in Gorgan, Iran. Reciprocal teaching involves four main reading strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing. Think-aloud involves prediction, forming mental pictures, connecting what they read to what they already read, creating analogies, and verbalizing confusing points. The results of this book indicate that think-aloud and reciprocal teaching had significantly positive effects on the English reading comprehension; however, think-aloud better enhances English reading comprehension.