The current study aimed to investigate the impact of utilizing reading strategy instruction (RSI) taught through extensive graded reading (EGR) on Egyptian EFL secondary stage students’ comprehension skills. Two first grade EFL secondary stage students (n = 63), randomly assigned to two groups, the regular group (n=31) was introduced to EGR for eight weeks, and the intervention group (n=32) received an eight-week experimental intervention of EGR integrated with RSI. The researcher used a quasi-experimental design, and the data collected were statistically treated to compare the two groups and track the effect of the experimental intervention on the participants’ comprehension skills. The results of data analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the scores of the two groups in the pre-test, but the mean scores of the post-test for the intervention group were higher than theirs in the pre-test and outperformed the regular group in the post-test. These results were supported by the observation that the researcher had of the participants enthusiastically answering the questions, recycling much of the vocabulary they acquired, and revisiting the grammatical structures they were exposed to through EGR and RSI in the required tasks. The intervention group participants, who experienced EGR integrated with RSI, manifested an improved reading proficiency, enhanced comprehension skills, and expanded use of the taught strategies, particularly glossing strategies, use of contextual clues, and activating background information. Significant results were found on the effect of EGR combined with RSI on improving the participants’ comprehension skills. The findings manifested impactful results for participants’ employment of the reading strategies after being trained on them during the intervention. The intervention group significantly developed their writing abilities, presented in the open-ended questions, and demonstrated a well-focused writing style. The present study sheds light on EFL reading instruction in Egypt and suggested an alternative approach to the traditional ones, and presented some guidelines for instructional procedures that could be used to enhance secondary stage students’ EFL comprehension skills, and accelerate their ability to utilize different reading strategies efficiently. The study concluded that the implementation of EGR combined with RSI could have positive effects on EFL students’ comprehension skills. |
