The Effect of Two Pre-task Activities: Pre taught Vocabulary and Brainstorming on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of two pre- task activities of reading: pre- taught vocabulary and brainstorming in EFL learners’ reading comprehending. To this end, three intact classes in a private English Institute in Tehran, were selected from a population of 60 English learners. Based on their scores on Oxford Placement Test (OPT), the students were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group and a pre-test was run at the beginning of the course. At outset of the course a pre- test was run among three groups. The researcher instructed the experimental groups in 16 weeks, one session a week and lasting 40 minutes in each session. The firstexperimental group benefitedfrom pre- taught vocabulary, while the second experimental group benefitedfrom brainstorming as a pre- task and the third group did not receive any pre- task activities in the reading class. At the end of the course, a post- test with the same items of the pre- test was run to determine the improvement of EFL intermediate students’ reading comprehension changes and an attitude questionnaire was planned to determine the learners’ attitudes toward the pre- task activities. The results of paired sample t- test indicated that the use of pre- taught vocabulary and also brainstorming enhanced the scores of the firstexperimental and second experimental groups’ post- tests; moreover, ANOVA results revealed a significantincrease in reading comprehension scores of the firstand the second experimental groups’ post- tests compared to the control group’ post-test scores. The results of attitude questionnaire demonstrated the pupils’ positive attitudes toward the use of pre- task activities.