The effectiveness of KWL strategy on Palestinian eleventh graders' reading comprehension, vocabulary and its retention and students' attitudes towards English

Other Title(s)

فعالية استراتيجية KWL على الفهم القرائي، المفردات و استبقائها لدى طلبة الحادي عشر في فلسطين و اتجاهاتهم نحو اللغة الإنجليزية

Dissertant

Abd al-Rahim, Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Atiyyah

Thesis advisor

Farwanah, Sadiq Salim Said

Comitee Members

Qishtah, Awad Sulayman
Farahat, Said Hasan

University

Islamic University

Faculty

Faculty of Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Teaching Methods

University Country

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2015

English Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of KWL strategy on Palestinian eleventh graders' reading comprehension, vocabulary and its retention and students' attitudes towards English.

To achieve the study aims, the researcher adopted the experimental approach on a sample of (64) male students from the scientific stream at Al Manfalouti Secondary School for Boys, who were randomly selected from the original population of (968) students enrolled in the scientific stream in the Directorate of Education - middle governorate for the academic year 2013-2014.

The participants were divided into two equivalent groups.

The researcher used 5 instruments to achieve the study aims: 1) a checklist for teachers to determine the five most important reading comprehension skills, 2) a pre and post reading comprehension test, 3) a pre and post vocabulary test, 4) a delayed vocabulary retention test, and 5) a pre and post attitude scale towards English language.

The researcher used the KWL strategy in teaching the experimental group, while the traditional method was used in teaching the control one in the second term of the scholastic year 2013-2014.

The experiment lasted for six weeks (2 lessons per week) in which the researcher implemented the study tools to investigate the effect of the KWL strategy.

The study results revealed that the KWL strategy was effective in developing reading comprehension, vocabulary and its retention and in enhancing the attitudes of students towards English language.

The findings indicated that there were significant differences in the mean scores of the experimental group and that of the control group in the post reading comprehension test in favor of the experimental group, which was attributed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy.

The findings also pointed out that there were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the experimental group and that of the control group in the post vocabulary test in favor of the experimental group, which was ascribed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy.

Furthermore, the findings indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group in the post vocabulary test and that of the delayed vocabulary retention test, which proves that the KWL strategy was effective in helping students retain vocabulary for a long time.

Additionally, the study results revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the experimental group and that of the control group in the post application of the attitude scale towards English in favor of the experimental group which was attributed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy.

The study findings also pointed out that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group subjects in the pretest and that of the post reading comprehension test in favor of the posttest, which was ascribed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy.

The study results also indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group subjects in the pretest and that of the post vocabulary test in favor of the posttest, which was attributed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy.

Besides, the study findings pointed out that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group subjects in the pre application and that of the post application of the attitude scale towards English in favor of the post application and this was attributed to the effectiveness of KWL strategy.

Based upon the previous findings, the study recommended that curriculum designers and decision makers should consider strategies such as KWL strategy to activate students' prior knowledge while building the curriculum activities.

The study also recommended Palestinian English supervisors hold training courses to motivate the use of innovative strategies like KWL strategy to develop teacher's abilities in teaching English.

Main Subjects

Educational Sciences
Languages & Comparative Literature

Topics

• Education
• Learning
• Secondary education
• Attitudes
• Palestine
• Gaza Strip
• English language
• Deir al-Balah

No. of Pages

225

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-687476