Investigating the Efficiency of Task-Based instruction in Improving Reading Comprehension Ability

This study was an attempt to investigate the efficiency of task-based instruction in improving reading comprehension ability in iranian efl students. to carry out the research, 102 iranian university students were considered as the participants of the study. following the administration of a standard cambridge key english test (ket) as a pre-test, they were later randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. during the experiment, the experimental group received some supplementary material in the form of reading comprehension tasks, while the control group was given a placebo. both groups received the same standard ket as a post-test (since the study focused on reading comprehension ability, the listening section of the ket was no used in the post-testing), to compare their reading comprehension ability improvement, as well as a final test, to examine the two groups' end-of-the-course language proficiency development, at the end of the experiment. undoubtedly, the reliability and validity of the instruments were taken into consideration during the course of experiment. subsequently, the obtained test scores were analyzed. the outcome of the analyses revealed a noticeable progress in the performances of experimental group on the tests. the results could, to a large degree, help the researcher to conclude that compared to the conventional (i.e., exercise based) method of teaching reading comprehension, task-based instruction was more effective in accelerating reading comprehension ability and in improving end-of-the-experiment language proficiency development in iranian efl university students