awej 5 no.4 full issue 2014

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.4, 2014Reflections on Reading Studies done by M.A Students at Al- UniversityBELMEKKI & IBRAHIMI9- Al-ShamalyDrid(2012)Title: The connectionbetween teaching readingand building the students’communicativecompetenceSubjects: Twentyfreshman female studentsmajoring in Englishparticipated in the study.The researcher distributed thesubjects in an experimentaland control group. Theparticipants in theexperimental group receivedreading instruction in specifictechniques that enhancecommunication. Whereas,students in the control groupwere taught reading intraditional classroom methodsHamdanStudents improved theirspeaking and oral skills whilepracticing reading activitiesbased on the communicativeapproach such discussingmain ideas, expressingmeanings extracted from thetext, commenting on author’sideas and pointing out themesexpressed in the text.10- Al-Heidan(2013)11- Al-Mahmoud(2013)Title: The Effects ofMorphology Awarenesson Students' ReadingComprehension SkillsSubjects: Fifty-eightfirst-grade female Saudistudents in a secondaryschool participated in thisstudy.Title: The Impact ofTask-based Reading onEnhancing VocabularyLearningSubjects: The sample ofthe study consisted of 60third intermediate Saudifemale students at 15thschool in Riyadh city.The subjects were in anexperimental group who weretaught with a morphemicanalysis, while the controlgroup attended their usualreading comprehensionclasses.Thirty students were for theexperimental group and 30 forthe control group. Theresearcher taught theexperimental group usingstrategies based on the taskbasedapproach. The controlgroup received regularinstruction which reliedheavily on traditional methodsof teachingThe results show a strongpositive correlation betweenmorphological awareness andthe improvement of thestudents' ReadingComprehension skills in thepost-assessment.The results revealedimprovement in vocabularyachievement on the posttest infavor of the experimentalgroup. It was noted also thatthe experimental groupshowed positive reactionstowards the reading tasks,classroom activities andhomework assignments basedon the task-based readingapproach.Table (3) showed there were eleven studies done on reading in connection with other languagearts namely, reading with vocabulary, writing, grammar and communication (speaking).According to table (3), eight out of the elven studies investigated reading and vocabularyconnection (Al-Othmaan, 2008; Al-Fahad, 2011; Al-Saloum, 2011; Al-Qahtani, 2011; Al-Otaibi,2011; Al-Awaad, 2011; Al-Heidan, 2013; Al-Mahmoud, 2013). The studies’ participants rangedfrom the very last year of high school to freshmen university students. The studies used theexperimental design where participants’ distribution was in experiment and control groups,except for study 3, which used no treatment, but a questionnaire. For data collection, preposttestwere administered prior to and post the treatment. The studies used intensive vocabularyprograms or extensive reading programs to explore the effectiveness of the connection betweenthe two skills on students’ performance on both vocabulary acquisition and learning to read andcomprehend. The results were significantly positive in favor of the treatment group- a fact thatArab World English JournalISSN: 2229-9327www.awej.org494