Abstract

 This study was carried out in one of the intellectual schools of Mangystau region, Kazakhstan.  The subjects of this research are seventh grade learners of class B in the academic year of 2018-2019, which lasted for 9 weeks. It is based on  the issue of low reading comprehension and aimed to seek if reciprocal teaching approach can make a difference  in student’s understanding or not. The qualitative data are obtained from observation notes and teacher/student interview. The quantitative dimension was designed by pre-test, mid-test and post-test scores. There are 10 students, 4 boys and 6girls who have enrolled to this intellectual school(2018-2019 academic year) by their math skills. Two of them have high ability (intermediate), the other two student have  low intermediate level, and the remaining part has elementary level in English. The reason of having poor English is they come from secondary schools where they had only 2 lessons per week.(Third language) That’s why learners revealed some difficulties/failure in reading comprehension when they were monitored by their 6 grade’s knowledge, they showed only 42% of proficiency. All seventh grade’s teachers discussed what strategies are beneficial for improvement and how can they apply them in teaching.

‘Students’ test results are one way to assess your teaching. “Good results should reflect good teaching”. (Davies, Pearse, 2000). So it needs to take action and make a change immediately. At the end of 9-week teaching process, students expository text comprehension was at a statistically significant level.

 Keywords: reciprocal teaching approach, comprehension, expository texts

Reading, which is defined as establishing and structuring skill, is assessed as an effective process that involves the stages of pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading stages within. Accordingly, effective readers should be able to use the reading comprehension skills at defined stages in order to structure the meaning (Akyol, 2006). Moreover, during comprehension process, tasks that demands higher-order thinking, such as examining, choosing, decision-making, converting, interpreting,  deduction, analysis, and assessment should be conducted (Güneş, 2004).

As Palincsar has mentioned that the ultimate goal of this strategy instruction is to provide learners with the means to engage in the self-regulation of their own learning. Self-regulated learners will engage in learning tasks actively, they can set goals for learning, monitor and manage their activity, thoughts, and feelings,  can  make the adjustments necessary to achieve their goals (Loyens  Rikers, 2008). Reciprocal Teaching was compared with modeling in which the educator demonstrated how to apply the strategies while reading text, and the students observed and responded to the teacher’s questions; ( isolated skills practice, in which students were taught the strategies using worksheet activities with extensive teacher feedback regarding their performance; and Reciprocal Teaching/independent practice, in which students were taught Reciprocal Teaching for only four days followed by eight days of independently applying the strategies in writing while reading text. Only the traditional Reciprocal Teaching procedure that incorporated dialogic instruction was effective in bringing about large and reliable changes in student performance (Brown & Palincsar, 1987).

Why  choose this strategy in the classroom?

Radcliffe, et al. (2004) manifested that explicit strategies promote engagement of prior knowledge and self-monitoring while reading. Barton, et all (2002 )interpreted that reading and learning are constructive processes: each learner actively draws on prior knowledge and experience to make sense of new information. The more knowledge and skills that students bring to a text, the better they will learn from and remember what they read. Best, et all (2005 )justified that when learners make connections while reading through inferential thought, deep level comprehension will follow. Deep understanding, as  portrayed by Best, et al. is requiring more than interpretations of sentences

Methodology Research questions What were the effects of Reciprocal Teaching Approach on learners understanding of a seventh grade expository texts? How did the applying of RTA influence learner’s competence to make predictions, generate questions, clarify unknown words and summarize the text? How are four strategies implemented in a typical Reciprocal Teaching dialogue? After baseline data had been collected teaching of strategies began. Students spent two weeks learning strategies through modelling of the strategies by teacher. After teaching each strategy learners teacher provided feedback, students also reflected on what they had taught. The strategy packets were used to help the educator in teaching process. A guidance was designed by Palincsar to implement reciprocal teaching successfully. During co-planning the packets were piloted and modified for content. After piloting packets required a minor modifications like making them understandable for learners. They also used as a handy guidance for students. The source of data for this study was 10 students’ 11 reading texts in parallel with the topics of their course book and selected ones. The data which collected quantitatively by texts was analyzed by counting deduced word numbers of each text and their variety, the quality of generated questions, students ability to identify the main ideas and summarizing it in a logical order as the scores and originality were compared so that difference could be seen. Then, identified main ideas of each paragraph and posed questions were classified into categories Student reading response worksheets were used to report learner’s predictions, questions, summaries and clarifications during the data collection process. This included pre-, mid-,post-assessment data collected regarding learner’s skills to form accurate predictions, generate/pose What/who/when/where/how and critical reading questions about text, also find out main idea through summarizing. The leader student took on role of teacher, and was asked to manage discussions related to stages of strategy. Students Lexile scores were assessed based on collected data. Similar to data used from KCAT, Lexile scores were used to assess students’ numeric score which corresponded to learners reading at, above, or below grade level. Lexiles is a computer adaptive test that measure students reading comprehension ability, then correlates that data to KCAT. Three students (30%) scores showed a reading comprehension level of between third and fifth grade, other three learners demonstrate sixth grade level, two students showed on their grade and two students performed eight or nine grades level. Two students could not speak in English.

Findings Post test included an informational passage about “The shrinkage of the Aral Sea” as they were studying about natural and man-made disasters. It included diagrams, maps, graphs which learners had to use along with the text to respond 10 questions about what was read. ( true/false/not given statements, finding main idea and identifying writers attitude, two high order questions). A student who has struggling in speaking gained 7 out of 10 correctly, 5 students could respond 9 out of 10 ,4 students manage all tasks perfectly. It means when teacher could use and choose reading strategies productively, naturally learners make progress achieving all learning objectives. According to students’ statements on the effectiveness of the strategy on comprehending expository texts, they think that the strategy is more effective than comprehension activities they encountered in their past experiences . Learners believe it is easier due to peer support, constant guidance and extra time provided for comprehension; effective because it enables better and quicker comprehension and motivates students; and fun because it allows moving around during the activities and also teacher provides positive contributions praising timely for their effort and desire. Educator is sure that working in small groups, student-student / teacher-student interaction and her setting the model affected students’ comprehension positively. She also stated that she could provide feedback more easily while working with groups. Positive effects of reciprocal teaching environment organized with small groups of 5-10 students on comprehension. At this point, student-student (peer) interaction is considered important (Hashey, Palinscar , 1987). Additionally, according to related literature, one of main reasons for effectiveness of strategy is teacher and student dialogues (Daly Hacker, 2002; Palincsar , 1984). This way, teachers can provide them with correct, on-time and reliable feedback, and students can establish connections using this feedback (King Billingsley – Almeida, 1993).

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