Effect of leisure time reading on EFL learners’ reading comprehension performance in private English language schools

Zahra Mosalli¹ Mehdi Ghasemi² Elina Eyvazi³

1) PhD in TEFL Mohaghegh Ardabili University
2) MA student of TEFL Mohaghegh Ardabili University
3) BA student of TEFL Mohaghegh Ardabili University

Publication : The first international conference and the second national conference of sports management with organizational health approach(cnsmuma.ir)
Abstract :
The act of reading, when repeated, becomes a habitual practice, quantified by the volume of materials read, reading frequency, and time devoted to reading. The International Reading Association (IRA) defines leisure reading as independent, self-selected reading of a continuous text for a wide range of personal and social purposes”.To delve deeper into this domain, we selected 60 students in 3 Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, and upper-mediate levels, 20 students for each level of reading comprehension proficiency. These students were categorized into these levels based on the previous reading comprehension proficiency test to have homogenous groups. Their engagement and commitment were checked over a 12-session term by their related teacher and at the end of the term a post-test about reading comprehension proficiency was conducted for all three level students, and their gained results implied an overall 20% improvement in their reading comprehension proficiency level. Ultimately it can be concluded that leisure time reading can have a meaningful positive effect on EFL learners’ reading comprehension performance in private English language schools, we assume that this positive effect is due to considering students funds of knowledge (FOK) and interests.
Keywords : leisure-time reading-comprehension EFL-Learners English-Schools Performance