Listening Anxiety, Metacognitive Awareness Strategy, and Listening Comprehension

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of vocabulary-oriented assignments as an extra-curricular activity on intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension performances. To do so, a quasi-experimental study was designed. Having been homogenized via Cambridge Placement Test, forty four intermediate (both males and females) in Parse institute in Zanjan were selected to participate in this study. These participants were randomly and equally divided into two groups, namely experimental and control groups. Both groups underwent reading comprehension instruction; however, the experimental group received separate trainings based on the specific vocabulary-based extracurricular activities. Before the treatment was implemented, both groups had been required to sit for an IELTS reading section exam taken from Cambridge IELTS 6. Having passed five treatment sessions, the participants received another IELTS reading exam as post test. The exam papers were all scored on the basis of IELTS Academic reading scale and the scores were later calculated by SPSS software 21. Two independent T-tests were run to compare the means of both groups in pre and post tests. The finding of the present study revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups’ means on the posttest of reading comprehension performance. Thus it was concluded that homework writing as an academic extra-curricular activity significantly affects foreign language reading comprehension performance of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. The present study contributes to the fields of SLA and ELT instruction as its findings are in line with the previous research in the ESL context and some studies done in the EFL context. Also, this research develops our perception of second language reading comprehension performance in an EFL context and underscores the role that vocabulary plays in the enhancement of reading comprehension skill. The finding of the study could be employed by a variety of ELT community members in Iranian schools and language institutes: materials developers, foreign language teachers, and educational policy makers. It was emphasized that vocabulary-oriented assignments could pave the way for the learners in an EFL situation to improve their performance in their reading comprehension performances.