The Effect of Awareness-Raising Training on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension with a Focus on Reflective and Impulsive Learning Styles

The present article aimed at investigating the effect of awareness-raising training on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension with a focus on reflective and impulsive learning styles. To do so, a group of 150 intermediate EFL learners in Iranian context were given a piloted version of language proficiency test of PET. 100 male and female learners whose scores fell 1SD below and above the mean were selected and divided into two equal groups shaping the experimental and control groups for the purpose of the study. Following the test of general proficiency the learners also received a valid version of questionnaire of impulsivity/reflectivity (developed by Riding and Cheema, 1991) based on which they were divided into impulsive and reflective groups. Both groups received a piloted reading pretest prior to the treatment phase as well. The experimental group received awareness-raising training techniques (Nakatani, 2005) during the treatment phase while the learners in the control group received conventional reading comprehension training. Following one semester of training and treatment the learners received the piloted version of the researcher-made reading comprehension posttest. The data gathered were put into statistical analysis and reported. A two-way ANOVA was run to investigate the effect of the treatment and personality traits on the performance of the subjects on the reading test and based on the results it was concluded that awareness raising training had a significant effect on the performance of the subjects on the reading test. The findings also asserted that the types of personality traits had a significant but moderate effect on the performance of the subjects on the reading test: The reflective subjects showed a higher mean on the reading test than the impulsive subjects. The findings of the research could be employed by EFL teachers, educational researchers, and English learners in an attempt to develop a more learner-centered method of second language reading comprehension.