pedagogical utility of audio assisted reading in improving efl learners' reading fluency and comprehension

Objective: there has been an increasing interest in exploring various methods to enhance the reading fluency and comprehension of efl/esl learners, both of which play a crucial role in successful reading. however, this area of research has not received sufficient attention within the iranian context. consequently, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of audio-assisted reading (aar) on the reading fluency and comprehension of iranian high school students. methods: to this end, adopting convenience sampling, a total of 61 female students were selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. aar technique was presented to the experimental group whereby the reading passages were taught alongside their audio versions. each passage was read five times and the students' reading rate was observed based on the number of words articulated per minute. results: the initial and final readings were followed by comprehension check questions. by contrast, the control group followed a traditional reading approach, which required students to read and translate the targeted passages into their l1. the findings revealed that aar positively affected the students' reading fluency, while no significant difference was found among the targeted groups in terms of comprehension. conclusion: notably, the results of the study may provide both efl/esl learners and teachers with insightful and promising pedagogical guidelines for meeting the objectives of reading comprehension classrooms. objective: there has been an increasing interest in exploring various methods to enhance the reading fluency and comprehension of efl/esl learners, both of which play a crucial role in successful reading. however, this area of research has not received sufficient attention within the iranian context. consequently, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of audio-assisted reading (aar) on the reading fluency and comprehension of iranian high school students. methods: to this end, adopting convenience sampling, a total of 61 female students were selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. aar technique was presented to the experimental group whereby the reading passages were taught alongside their audio versions. each passage was read five times and the students' reading rate was observed based on the number of words articulated per minute. results: the initial and final readings were followed by comprehension check questions. by contrast, the control group followed a traditional reading approach, which required students to read and translate the targeted passages into their l1. the findings revealed that aar positively affected the students' reading fluency, while no significant difference was found among the targeted groups in terms of comprehension. conclusion: notably, the results of the study may provide both efl/esl learners and teachers with insightful and promising pedagogical guidelines for meeting the objectives of reading comprehension classrooms.