Effects of task-based English reading instruction on reading comprehension ability of elementary school students

Abstract

To study (1) the effects of task-based English reading instruction on reading comprehension ability of elementary school students and (2) students’ opinions on task-based English reading instruction. The subjects were Grade 6 students selected by purposive sampling. There were 35 students consisted of 17 males and 18 females. The instruments in this research were the English reading comprehension pretest and posttest (parallel forms), and the open-ended questions. The data were analyzed using t-test and content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that (1) the posttest mean scores on English reading comprehension of elementary school students were higher than the pretest mean scores at the significance level of .05, and (2) students reflected towards the benefits and limitations of the task-based reading instruction. Students thought that the instruction provided students a chance to do various types of tasks, increased students’ interaction when performing tasks with their friends in groups, and broadened students’ experience about the learning topic and knowledge of vocabulary as well as grammar. In terms of the limitations, some students stated that the students had the problems with the language use and the time allocation.